INTRODUCTION
What is XML?
XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and it is a markup language like HTML. Although it similar to HTML it was designed to carry data, not to display data. XML tags are not predefined as it required an individual to define their own tags. XML is designed to be self-descriptive and W3C recommendation on February 10, 1998 and it is defined in the XML 1.0 specification.The design goals of XML emphasize simplicity, generality, and usability over the Internet. It is a textual data format with strong support via Unicode for the languages of the world. Although the design of XML focuses on documents, it is widely used for the representation of arbitrary data structures, for example in web services.
Many application programming interfaces (APIs) have been developed to aid software developers with processing XML data, and several schema systems exist to aid in the definition of XML-based languages.
As of 2009, hundreds of document formats using XML syntax have been developed, including RSS, Atom, SOAP, and XHTML. XML-based formats have become the default for many office-productivity tools, including Microsoft Office (Office Open XML), OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice (OpenDocument), and Apple's iWork. XML has also been employed as the base language for communication protocols, such as XMPP.
The Difference Between XML and HTML
XML is not a replacement for HTML.
XML and HTML were designed with different goals:
- XML was designed to transport and store data, with focus on what data is
- HTML was designed to display data, with focus on how data looks
XML Does Not DO Anything
XML does not DO anything. It was created to structure, store, and transport information.The following example is a note to Tove, from Jani, stored as XML:
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
But still, this XML document does not DO anything. It is just information wrapped in tags. Someone must write a piece of software to send, receive or display it.
The tags in the example above (like <to> and <from>) are not defined in any XML standard. These tags are "invented" by the author of the XML document.
That is because the XML language has no predefined tags.
The tags used in HTML are predefined. HTML documents can only use tags defined in the HTML standard (like <p>, <h1>, etc.).
XML allows the author to define his/her own tags and his/her own document structure.
There are tutorial link on how to use XML
- http://www.w3schools.com/xml/
- http://www.xmlmaster.org/en/article/d01/
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6DmCUH-4MQ
There are some example of XML
Figure 1
Figure 2
These XML also can be converted into table
<book category="COOKING">
<title lang="en">Everyday Italian</title>
<author>Giada De Laurentiis</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>RM 30.00</price>
</book><book category="CHILDREN">
<title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>
<author>J K. Rowling</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>RM 29.99</price>
</book>
| Bookcategory | Title | Author | Year | Price |
| Cooking | Everyday Italian | Giada De Laurentis | 2005 | RM 30.00 |
| Children | Harry Potter | K. Rowling | 2005 | RM 29.99 |
So, enjoy your day in learning XML
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