XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a standard for creating markup languages which describe the structure of data. It is not a fixed set of elements like HTML, but rather, it is like SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) in that it is a metalanguage, or a language for describing languages. The XML standard was created by W3C to provide an easy to use and standardized way to store self-describing data (self-describing data is data that describes both its content and its structure). Here you'll find all sorts of XML, from absolute beginner stuff to more advanced material. If you are a new web author looking for some "Plain English" XML tutorials, then you've come to the right place. If you find out that the tutorial wans't on your needs, send us an email and discuss with us.
XML documents consist of several elements that are similar to the tags used to make up an HTML document. These elements are used to provide context to the information that they surround. XML documents can be developed to be document-centric, meaning that they are intended to be used by humans. However, XML documents can also be data-centric, meaning that they are intended to be used by another application and will generally contain data extracted from a database or data that will be submitted to an API.
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So far, during this series of articles (part 1, part 2) we've
looked at DOM and SAX, and I suppose most of you are thinking which one
of the two approaches is preferable? Well, there is no general rule of
thumb, but this article might help you make the right decision when
you’ll have to.
NOTE Before you get started, you'll probably want to download the support file (70KB) which contains sample codes for all articles in this series up to this point.)
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Last
time, we learned about JAXP, Xerces, DOM and the javax.xml.parsers Java
Package. How about getting a little taste of the SAX interfaces? We
look at available classes and interfaces, and learn how to use SAX for
XML Processing.
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In a previous article (XML Basics Part One);we had a
brief look at XML. However, as stated in the article, XML itself is
worth nothing without the set of APIs that are generated-it would
simply be just another fancy form of CSV, that is, a proprietary data
format!
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Do you cringe when you hear the words "XML"? Are you just not sure what the heck this acronym is all about? Not to worry! In this article, Liviu introduces us to XML, the various ways it can be created and parsed, as well as a brief introduction to XML and the way it came to be.
{mos_sb_discuss:24} Okay, I’ve heard jokes about people parsing XML files backwards, starting at the end of the file and reporting SAX events in reverse document order, but it seems that someone has actually gone and done it.
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Beyond using XML as a simple data format, data binding is one of the
most popular uses of XML. It allows even beginner programmers to work
with XML in a native programming language, and in many cases doesn't
require any XML expertise at all.
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I recently wrote a blog about the directions that I saw with XML, and while it has proved to be fairly popular, it has also generated a fair number of comments that really need their own more detailed examination. One of these, and one that I’ve been planning to write for a while anyway, has to do with my comments about XSLT 2.0 increasingly being used as a “router” language, replacing such applications as Microsoft’s BizTalk Server.