What You Should Already Know
Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of
the following:
If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials
on our Home page.
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 a W3C Recommendation
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.
HTML is about displaying information, while XML is about
carrying information.
XML Does not DO Anything
Maybe it is a little hard to understand, but XML does not DO
anything. XML 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>
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The note above is quite self descriptive. It has sender and
receiver information, it also has a heading and a message body.
But still, this XML document does not DO anything. It is just
pure information wrapped in tags. Someone must write a piece of
software to send, receive or display it.
XML is Just Plain Text
XML is nothing special. It is just plain text. Software that
can handle plain text can also handle XML.
However, XML-aware applications can handle the XML tags
specially. The functional meaning of the tags depends on the
nature of the application.
With XML You Invent Your Own Tags
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 (and the structure of 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 own tags and his own
document structure.
XML is Not a Replacement for HTML
XML is a complement to HTML.
It is important to understand that XML is not a replacement
for HTML. In most web applications, XML is used to transport
data, while HTML is used to format and display the data.
My best description of XML is this:
XML is a software and hardware independent tool for
carrying information.
XML is a W3C Recommendation
XML became a W3C Recommendation 10. February 1998.
XML is Everywhere
We have been participating in XML development since its
creation. It has been amazing to see how quickly the XML
standard has developed, and how quickly a large number of
software vendors have adopted the standard.
XML is now as important for the Web as HTML was to the
foundation of the Web.
XML is everywhere. It is the most common tool for data
transmissions between all sorts of applications, and is becoming
more and more popular in the area of storing and describing
information. |