From your posting it sounds like you're very new to XML, therefore I really
recommend getting yourself familiar with XML before you look at parsers and
processing techniques. Essential XML is a pretty dated book, but still very
relevant reading about the core technologies. The Xml Family Of
Specifications gives you a broader overview over the field and is newer than
the Essential XML and discusses a broader spectrum of XML related
technologies. Both are platform independent books and should help you
understanding XML.
Once you got that foundation you can look are more platform specific stuff.
Kirk Allen Evan's XML and ASP.NET is pretty well regarded, for example.
You'll also find lots of online resources [0] [1] and examples in your .NET
Framework SDK documentation that should get you going.
Now, let's talk about parsers for a second. You need a parser to process
XML. The good news (and the bad news) is that the .NET Framework ships with
at least 4 ( some might argue it's even more ) technologies to parse XML. An
understanding of Xml will help you to pick the right one.
To sum it up: There shouldn't be any specific hardware requirements to
process XML, just a computer that's "fast enough", for small applications
anything that's less than 5 years old will do, but of course that depends on
the amount of XML you're planning to process . With the .NET Framework (part
of MSDN) you have every tools you need to accomplish your task. You will
even find relevant examples in the framework documentation. I strongly
recommend that your first step be reading up on XML, to understand what the
magic of all the <> tags is ...
--
HTH
Christoph Schittko [MVP]
Software Architect, .NET Mentor
[0]
http://www.topxml.com
[1]
http://www.xml.com
"Newbie" <Questions__Answers@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:94f039bf.0309110318.6322e5e3@posting.google.c om...[color=blue]
> I am extremely new to the working of XML. Our client wants us to
> access their Website. They also want us to retrieve XML (files?) from
> their site. We will then somehow import it into our SQL database
> where we do our own thing with our custom software and then send it
> back to the client via XML again.
>
> My question is..what do I need to set up in terms of hardware and
> software to be able to download the XML files into my environment.
>
> I hear terminology such as Listeners, DOMs, and Parsers. In our shop,
> we have MSDN available to us. Will that help and what should my first
> step be?
>
> Thanks in advance.[/color]
