About XML
Like Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language
(XML) is a subset of Standardized General Markup Language (SGML) and has
been designed specifically for use on the Web. XML is defined in the W3C
Recommendation published by the World Wide Web Consortium. The latest
version of this document is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml.
XML is more complete and disciplined than HTML, and it is also a
framework for creating markup languages—it allows you to define your own
application-oriented markup tags.
XML provides a set of rules for structuring data. Like HTML, XML
uses tags and attributes, but the tags are used to delimit pieces of
data, allowing the application that receives the data to interpret the
meaning of each tag. These properties make XML particularly suitable for
data interchange across applications, platforms, enterprises, and the
Web. The data can be structured in a hierarchy that includes
nesting.
An XML document is made up of declarations, elements, comments,
character references, and processing instructions, indicated in the
document by explicit markup.
The simple XML document that follows contains an XML declaration
followed by the start tag of the root element, <d_dept_list>,
nested row and column elements, and finally the end tag of the root
element. The root element is the starting point for the XML
processor.
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |
<?xml version="1.0"> <d_dept_list> <d_dept_list_row> <dept_id>100</dept_id> <dept_name>R &amp;D</dept_name> <dept_head_id>501</dept_head_id> </d_dept_list_row> .. </d_dept_list> |
This section contains a brief overview of XML rules and syntax.
For a good introduction to XML, see XML in 10 points at http://www.w3.org/XML/1999/XML-in-10-points.
For more detailed information, see the W3C XML page at http://www.w3.org/XML/, the
XML Cover Pages at http://xml.coverpages.org/xml.html,
or one of the many books about XML.