What exactly is xml?

[Yuki H.]

I was wondering- is xml sort of considered like a stylesheet? (example: css) or is it more considered something like html? where you make tables and such.

[techniner]

I was wondering- is xml sort of considered like a stylesheet? (example: css) or is it more considered something like html? where you make tables and such.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a W3C initiative that allows information and services to be encoded with meaningful structure and semantics that computers and humans can understand. XML is great for information exchange, and can easily be extended to include user-specified and industry-specified tags.

For detailed info please see http://www.w3.org/XML/

[tgreer]

Neither, though HTML and XML are both derived from SGML. XML is a data file, formatted with tags and attributes defined via a schema. HTML is the same thing, though specialized to "web pages". XML is generic, or to say it another way, may be specialized to your specific needs.

Perhaps you're thinking of XHTML, which is a stricter version of HTML inspired by XML.

[priyanka]

Hi ,
HTML is about displaying information and XML is about describing information. It was created to structure, store and send information. With HTML , you can't define your won tags but with XML you can invent your own tags. For more information on XML check out http://www.w3schools.com

[guideseeq]

What exactly is xml?

XML is difficult. It is a trend. It is used very much these days in B2B (Business to Business) data sharing. XSL and XSLT (style sheets methods to display a XML file) is actually diffiuclt and essential part of XML.

XML is exact, HTML is not. XML is a technology using that, you could separate presentation and data/text; this is not really possible with HTML. Note that XML is displayed as X/HTML since XML is not a human-friendly reading.

XML is not a presentation language; it won't replace X/HTML. To really comprehend it, use it in few test examples .. it is easy (only XSL/XSLT is difficult for beginners)

[tgreer]

Some of these descriptions of HTML are a bit off. It is exact, there is an exact definition/specification for each HTML version. It isn't precisely about "displaying information". It is a structure for a document, true. But the specific manner in which that document is display is not a part of HTML. That's up to the browser, and CSS.

[rexapex]

Some interesting definitions of XML. Here's my short one, which may or may not be technically correct, but I find it a useful point of view:

XML is a computer friendly version of SGML. It is a general purpose markup language just like SGML, but refined to be easier to manipulate with computer technology. The primary purpose of XML is for defining application specific markup languages. Examples of such markup languages are xhtml, wml, rss.

[Sudhakarj]

hi friends.
we will start from scratch.. at first XML stands foe eXtensible Markup Language.

eXtensible -> Where u can define ur own tags to create the data file.
Markup -> The language which uses tags to store data.

markup languages are derived from SGML as our friends said above. SGML was a very vast lang which provides both defined tags and manual user tags. So it was very difficult to work with SGML so ppl came with solutiion like HTML (All tags predefined) XML (None of tags are defined u have create ur own tags)

there are few rules for XML.
1. Well formed
2. Valid

Well formed means all the tags should be properly nested
Valid means the file is composed according to DTD (document type definition) or XSD

XML is all about data. Porting data between incompatible system is the best feature of XML.

U can also display XML file as HTML, TEXT, PDF (using FOP) for this we need another X :) called XSL and XSl FO which internally usase XSLT(An Engine)

U can query the XML file using XPATH or XQUERY

U can give links using XLINK.

For parsing a XML file we either use (SAX or DOM) read on net about them.

The future of XML is very bright :P

well one thing wanna say XML is not a replacement of HTML.

Happy X 'ing

[jamshid]

I was wondering- is xml sort of considered like a stylesheet? (example: css) or is it more considered something like html? where you make tables and such.

XML is not a replacement for HTML.
XML and HTML were designed with different goals:

XML was designed to describe data and to focus on what data is.
HTML was designed to display data and to focus on how data looks.

HTML is about displaying information, while XML is about describing information.

I hope i can help you .....

[jamshid]

And Also i wanna say this too that : Maybe it is a little hard to understand, but XML does not DO anything. XML was created to structure, store and to send information.
....

[jamshid]

The tags used to mark up HTML documents and the structure of HTML documents are predefined. The author of HTML documents can only use tags that are defined in the HTML standard (like <p>, <h1>, etc.).

XML allows the author to define his own tags and his own document structure.

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.

[jamshid]

i wanna add this small sentence that xml is developing so fastly and so many softwares are accepting xml as to transform data or else....

simple goto www.w3schools.com and read there XML tutorials and you will learn everything about XML.

[blitz123]

Can XML be used in ASP Ecommerce website?

Yes XML could be used with ASP.
http://www.15seconds.com/issue/990527.htm

[Lazaro Claiborn]

I was wondering- is xml sort of considered like a stylesheet? (example: css) or is it more considered something like html? where you make tables and such.

You know how an HTML document (.html) usually contains tags like "<TABLE>"... well an XML document (.xml) contains similar looking tags with one difference, an XML document contains such tags that aren't predefined. I would if you inserted "<monsterous>Nerd</monsterous>" along with the nessesary tags (i.e <HTML>) in an HTML document, would a browser such as IE recognize that as a valid tag? No, because it is not part of the predefined set of tags supported by that browser. With the an XML document that tag could be valid but instead of showing a monsterous nerd with geeky glasses the text "Nerd" would be the data that would be accessible by a XSLT based document which uses X-Path to access the "Nerd" text using the tag "<mounsterous>" to know where it is. So no, XML is a document that STORES the data. XSLT is the stylesheet and it would contain HTML tags along with an XSL tag to access the data from an XML file which would be linked. It would use the HTML in conjuction with the XSL tag to output HTML that looks nice.

For further information I recommend www.w3schools.com along with the others whoms reply message contains the same link. :rolleyes:

LamaBot

[meaculpa]

Yes XML could be used with ASP.
http://www.15seconds.com/issue/990527.htm

Hi XML and ASP is actually a good combination.!