The course introduces the students to the concepts, tools and technologies related to the Markup Languages. Markup languages play a very important role in the implementation of metadata standards and schemas that are used to describe documents and objects in Archives, Libraries, and Museums. The course begins at the lowest level, from character encoding and the related standards (ASCII code, ISO 8859 standard, UNICODE standard and its implementation). It then examines online resource identification, URI, URL and URN standards and their syntax. Then, students are introduced to the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and its related formalisms, such as Document Type Declarations, XML Namespaces, and XML Schema. Finally, languages developed to locate information and query XML documents, such as XPath, XQUERY, are presented. Besides, XSLT and XSL stylesheets are presented. Applications of markup languages in Archives, Libraries and Museums are also briefly presented.

The laboratory part of the course includes familiarizing students with the markup languages and the related technologies. In particular, students are taught to use XML editors for writing, editing and validating XML documents. Finally, learn to use XPath and XQuery to pose queries on XML data.

The course aims to familiarize students with the markup languages and the related technologies. In-depth knowledge of the technologies associated with markup languages will then help them understand the metadata standards that are used in archives, libraries and museums and which rely heavily on the technologies of the markup languages.

Week #1: Character encoding standards. The ASCII encoding standard. The ISO 8859 series of standards. The UNICODE standard and its implementations.

Week #2:  Identifying resources in the web. URIs, URLs and URNs and their syntax.

Week #3: eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

Week #4: XML Examples.

Week #5: Document Type Declarations.

Week #6: XML Namespaces.

Week #7: XML Schema.

Week #8: DTD vs XML Schema.

Week #9: XML Path Language (XPATH).

Week #10: XQUERY.

Week #11: XSL stylesheets, XSLT and XSL FO.

Week #12: Applications of Markup Languages in Archives, Libraries and Museums.

Week #13: Other applications of Markup Languages.  

Main bibliography

• Manolis Gergatsoulis, Christos Papatheodorou, «Markup Languages» (Course Notes) (In Greek).

Useful Web Pages

• The web page of W3C organization: https://www.w3.org/
• “XML Tutorial” from https://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

Lectures making extensive use of visual aids. Practical training takes place in the computer laboratory.

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Course evaluation includes: a) Written examination for the theoretical part of the course, b) Examination of the laboratory part of the course. The final grade is obtained as the average of the two grades.