XML Tutorials
This XML tutorial is for beginners. You don't need experience with any other web technologies, but you'll probably find it easier to understand if you've had experience with technologies such as HTML, CSS and/or database systems. If you're not familiar with HTML or database systems, don't worry - XML is a very easy technology to learn.
There's a lot in this tutorial so I encourage you to bookmark this page now so that you can continue at your leisure.
XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language.
XML is designed to transport and store data.
XML is important to know, and very easy to learn.
XML Document Example
<*?xml version="1.0"?> * <*to>Tove<*/to> <*from>Jani <*heading>Reminder<*/heading> <*body>Don't forget me this weekend!<*/body> <*/note> |
Results:
TRY IT YOURSELF |
Features/Benefits of XML
XML has been widely adopted since its creation and with good reason. Some of the key features and benefits of XML include:
* Easy data exchange - One of the great things about XML is that it can allow easy sharing of data between different applications - even if these applications are written in different languages and reside on different platforms.
* Self-describing data - When you look at an XML document, it is very easy to figure out what's going on.
* Create your own languages - XML allows you to specify your own markup language for your own specific purpose. Some existing XML based languages include Banking Industry Technology Secretariat (BITS), Bank Internet Payment System (BIPS), Financial Exchange (IFX) and many more.
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
Difference Between XML and HTML
If you're familiar with HTML, you might notice that XML looks similar to HTML. Like XML, HTML is also a markup language. In fact, HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. Markup languages are used for describing how a document's contents should be interpreted.
HTML:
HTML includes over 100 pre-defined tags to allow the author to specify how each piece of content should be presented to the end user. For example, if you surround some content with tags, the user agent/browser will render that content using a bold typeface.
XML:
XML allows you to create your own tags to describe the data between them. You're not particularly interested in how the data will be presented. Your main focus is ensuring that the data is well organised within descriptive tags (or elements). This is because XML is primarily used for data storage and transfer purposes - not for presentation purposes.
Table of Contents
This section focuses on XML itself, how to view and write XML:
* XML Documents
* XML Syntax
* XML Elements
* XML Attributes
* XML CSS
* XML Namespace
* XML Entities
* XML CDATA
