Introduction
What is XML
- XML stands for Extensible Markup Language
- XML is a markup language much like HTML.
- XML was designed to carry data, not to display data.
- XML tags are not predefined. You must define your own tags.
- XML is designed to be self-descriptive.
- XML is W3C recommendation.
Representing Web data
XML stands for extensible Markup Language, developed by W3c in 1996. XML 1.0 was officially adopted as a W3c recommendation in 1998. XML was designed to carry data, not to display data. XML is designed to be self-descriptive. XML is an ISO-compliant subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) than can be defined in your own tags. A meta language and tags describe the content. XML supports Cascading Style Sheets(CSS), eXtensible Stylesheet Language(XSL), Document Object Model (DOM).
Advantages
- XML is a simple scripting language where as humans can easily read.
- XML document is language natural that means one language programming code can generate and XML and document and these documents can be passed by other languages.
Goals of XML
- The user must to able to define and use his own tags.
- Allows the user to build his own tag library, based on his web requirement.
- Allow user to define the formatting rules for the user defined tags.
- XML must support storage or transport of data.
XML and HTML were designed with different goals
- XML is designed to carry data emphasizing on what type of data it is whereas HTML is designed to display data emphasizing on how data looks.
- XML tags are not predefined like HTML tags.
- XML provides a framework for defining markup languages whereas HTML is a markup language.
- XML is about carrying information, which makes it dynamic whereas HTML is about displaying data, hence it is static.
Next Topic :XML Syntax