What is XML?
- Stands for EXtensible Markup Language
- Is a markup language just like HTML.
- Designed to store, structure and transfer data.
- Not for the display purpose.
- Tags are user defined.
- You need to define your own tags.
- They are self-descriptive.
- Is a W3C Recommendation.
What it contains?
XML is not so special. It's just a plain text. You can handle the same way you handle the plain text.
What does it mean?
The application knows the functional meaning of the tags.
Where is it used and who desides the contents?
In XML you write your own tags which represent the data which the business/application can understand. The author of the XML desides the tags and their use. That is because there are no predefined XML tags.
XML allows the author( who creates) to define his own tags and his own way of organising them.
XML is everywhere. It is the most common method used for data transmissions between all kinds of applications, and is becoming more and more popular in the area of storing, describing and distributing information.
XML is used in many ways in web development, mainly to simplify data storage and sharing.
Can we relate XML with HTML?
The Tags in XML are not part of XML standard. they are completly user defined. Where as the tags in HTML are predefined and they are part of the standard you can only use thos tags which are defined in the HTML standard.
XML is not replacement for HTML. XML is a complement for HTML.
XML is used for transporting data, while HTML is for displaying the data.
XML is independent of the underlying software you use in developing your application.
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