What is XML? XML is short for Hyper Text Markup Language, a markup language that defines a group of rules for coding a list of structural elements in a compatible manner.
XML can be written or read using a standard computer application; the data it contains can be stored in files on servers, used to create navigation menus, and used in search engine optimization (SEO) and website content generation. The World Wide Web Consortium’s XML 1.0 specification and various other similar specifications define XML.
XML may be written to standard computer file formats such as text files, cds, used, to, pdf, and so on. Some software has been designed to write XML and so allows the user to manipulate it, although much XML is written by web developers for use in different contexts. The different goals of writing XML and the different ways of accessing and creating XML data may confuse the novice user of XML, so it is advisable to become familiar with the different goals and purposes of XML before trying to use XML in your business projects. Here are the major goals and uses of XML:
XML was introduced to allow internationalization of information on the World Wide Web. XML can be written to HTML. It enables you to create hyperlinks, include style sheets, and includes special characters such as XML commands percent and symbols. XML allows you to access the attributes of the document structure, it is written in using a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).
XML documents can be case sensitive or non-case sensitive. Case sensitive XML documents cannot contain characters other than a carriage return and a line terminator. XML documents can contain zero or one occurrences of the character? For example,”)? A list of XML elements enclosed in curly braces. The element name before the braces is the id.
XML must define the different types of elements that a document structure may have. These types of elements are referred to as attributes, content, attributes, or content descriptors. XML also includes a metadata dictionary that stores the different values that must be defined.
You must define what XML looks like in your web page. You should not be afraid to use XML if you are unfamiliar with the markup language. Simply defining what XML looks like, gives you the ability to put HTML inside your XML document. If you need help with creating XML, consult an expert. Creating XML documents can be intimidating for someone who has little experience with the markup language.
XML is similar to HTML, but XML is more flexible. In fact, XML is more similar to HTML than HTML is to XML. In other words, there is much like HTML, but there are also XML-specific features that make XML much like HTML. To illustrate this point, consider how much like HTML in the XML definition of a head tag is.
Even if you do not know much about the inner workings of XML, you can use XML to create documents and publish them on the Internet. For example, consider the fact that many web designers prefer to use XML instead of HTML to describe a website’s content. Some websites use only text, but many use both text and graphics, which are often much easier to produce using XML. Lastly, although not always true, the XML definition of a head tag is typically used instead of the more common html tag. In short, you do not need to know much about the XML terminology to understand that XML is not a replacement for him.