What Is RSS?
What is XML?
 XML Definition
The meaning behind it.
XML stands for Extensible Markup Language, which is a markup language much like HTML. HTML basically is about displaying information but XML in the other hand, is all about describing information. XML basically is a markup language for documents containing structured information, and is defined by a number of related specifications. The great thing about XML is that it is not a programming language, and you don't have to be a programmer to use it or learn it. Among people who know nothing about software engineering, XML is the most popular technology since Java.
XML is text, but isn't meant to be read. Regardless, it is readable by both computer and humans. It is also very heavily used for enclosing or encapsulating information in order to pass it between different computing systems which would otherwise be unable to communicate. Other function which XML plays is as a very useful technology for moving data between different databases or between databases and other programs. The number of applications currently being developed that are based on, or make use of, XML documents is truly amazing (particularly when you consider that XML is relatively new). And since XML is license-free,you can build your own software around it without paying anybody anything. XML is positioned to be a key web application technology, mainly because of its ability to deliver portable data.
Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and elsewhere.
- XML stands for EXtensible Markup Language
- XML is a markup language much like HTML
- XML was designed to describe data
- XML tags are not predefined. You must define your own tags
- XML uses a Document Type Definition (DTD) or an XML Schema to describe the data
- XML with a DTD or XML Schema is designed to be self-descriptive
- XML is a W3C Recommendation
XML Definition (Taken from Wikipedia)
The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose markup language. It is classified as an extensible language because it allows its users to define their own tags. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet.
It is a simplified subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), and is designed to be relatively human-legible. By adding semantic constraints, application languages can be implemented in XML. These include XHTML, RSS, MathML, GraphML, Scalable Vector Graphics, MusicXML, and thousands of others. Moreover, XML is sometimes used as the specification language for such application languages.
XML is recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium. It is a fee-free open standard. The W3C recommendation specifies both the lexical grammar, and the requirements for parsing.
XML
Click the link below to view an example of a structured XML document
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Advantages and Disadvantages of XML
What you get and what you don't get
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DISADV |
It is a simultaneously human- and machine-readable format.
It supports Unicode, allowing almost any information in any written human language to be communicated.
It can represent the most general computer science data structures: records, lists and trees.
Its self-documenting format describes structure and field names as well as specific values.
The strict syntax and parsing requirements make the necessary parsing algorithms extremely simple, efficient, and consistent.
XML is heavily used as a format for document storage and processing, both online and offline,
It is based on international standards.
It allows validation using schema languages such as XSD and Schematron, which makes effective unit-testing, firewalls, acceptance testing, contractual specification and software construction easier.
The hierarchical structure is suitable for most (but not all) types of documents.
It manifests as plain text files, which are less restrictive than other proprietary document formats.
It is platform-independent, thus relatively immune to changes in technology;
Forward and backward compatibility are relatively easy to maintain despite changes in DTD or Schema.
Its predecessor, SGML, has been in use since 1986, so there is extensive experience and software available.
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XML syntax is redundant or large relative to binary representations of similar data.
The redundancy may affect application efficiency through higher storage, transmission and processing costs.
XML syntax is too verbose relative to other alternative 'text-based' data transmission formats.
No intrinsic data type support: XML provides no specific notion of "integer", "string", "boolean", "date", and so on.
The hierarchical model for representation is limited in comparison to the relational model or an object oriented graph.
Expressing overlapping (non-hierarchical) node relationships requires extra effort.
XML namespaces are problematic to use and namespace support can be difficult to correctly implement in an XML parser.
XML is commonly depicted as "self-documenting" but this depiction ignores critical ambiguities.
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