XML- Introduction

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 is mostly used on the websites where data changes frequently but the format of data storage and display is the same.
For eg : Yahoo ! Cricket, Stock Market Websites are few to name.
Here Feeding the Information on regular basis will be a tedious work rather using XML to do the same work will save time.


XML Document Example


<?xml version="1.0"?>
<note>
    <to>Ram</to>
    <from>Peter</from>
    <heading>Reminder</heading>
    <body>Don't forget birthday party this weekend!</body>
</note>

• XML was designed to transport and store data.
• HTML was designed to display data.

What You Should Already Know
Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:

• HTML
• JavaScript

How Can XML be Used?

• It is used in many aspects of web development, often to simplify data storage and sharing.
• It Separates Data from HTML
• If you need to display dynamic data in your HTML document, it will take a lot of work to edit the HTML each time the data changes.(as mentioned at the start.)
• With XML, data can be stored in separate XML files.
•  This way you can concentrate on using HTML for layout and display, and be sure that changes in the underlying data will not require any changes to the HTML.
• With a few lines of JavaScript code, you can read an external XML file and update the data content of your web page.