Building XML Applications is the guide to the Apache Cocoon project. The book contains the much needed documentation on the Cocoon project, but it does not limit itself to just being a developer's handbook. The book motivates the use of XML and XML software (in particular open source software). It contains everything a beginner needs to get going with Cocoon as well as the detailed information a developer needs to develop new and exciting components to extend the XML publishing framework. Although each chapter builds upon the previous ones, the book is designed so that the chapters can also be read as individual guides to the topics they discuss. Varied "hands-on" examples are used to make the underlying concepts and technologies absolutely clear to anyone starting out with Cocoon. Chapters that detail the author's experience in building Internet applications are used to embed Cocoon into the "real world" and complete the picture.