What is XML and why is it important?

5 Basic Reasons You Should Use XML

XML frees data from its formatting, improving its flexibility

Updated on March 11, 2020

Extensible Markup Language separates data from its format. This fact alone answers the question, “Why should you use XML?” XML is a markup language. By design, it carries information that needs to be incorporated into a document. This versatile format offers several excellent use cases.

Simplicity

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XML is easy to understand. You create the tags and develop the overall setup of your document. What could be simpler than that? When you write a page in XML, the element tags are your own creation. You are free to develop a system based on your needs. Plus, when you're familiar with basic XML syntax, you'll learn how human-readable the file really is.

Organization

XML allows you to build your platform by segmenting the design process. Data sits on one page, and formatting rules stay on another. If you have a general idea of what information you need to produce, you can write the data page first then work on the design. XML allows you to produce the site in stages and stay organized in the process.

Accessibility

With XML you compartmentalize your work. Separating data makes it accessible when changes are needed. If you write both segments in HTML, you create sections that incorporate the formatting instructions with the information you need to display on the page. When the time comes to change an inventory record or update your details, you must wade through all the code to find a few lines. With XML, separating data makes changes easy and time-saving.

Standardization

XML is an international standard so anyone in the world can view your document. Whether you search for visitors in Alabama or Timbuktu, chances are they can to access the page. XML puts the world in your virtual backyard.

Multiple Applications

Make one data page and use it over and over again. When you catalog inventory, you only do it once. Create as many display pages as you want for that data. XML allows you to generate different styles and formats based on one page of information.

Ultimately, XML is a tool. It keeps your design work organized into practical compartments. The easy nature of the language doesn't require massive amounts of knowledge or an alphabet soup of credentials behind your name. XML saves time and keeps the design flow organized.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) lets you define and store data in a shareable manner. XML supports information exchange between computer systems such as websites, databases, and third-party applications. Predefined rules make it easy to transmit data as XML files over any network because the recipient can use those rules to read the data accurately and efficiently.

Why is XML important?

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that provides rules to define any data. Unlike other programming languages, XML cannot perform computing operations by itself. Instead, any programming language or software can be implemented for structured data management.

For example, consider a text document with comments on it. The comments might give suggestions like these:

Make the title bold
This sentence is a header
This word is the author

Such comments improve the document’s usability without affecting its content. Similarly, XML uses markup symbols to provide more information about any data. Other software, like browsers and data processing applications, use this information to process structured data more efficiently.

XML tags

You use markup symbols, called tags in XML, to define data. For example, to represent data for a bookstore, you can create tags such as , , and <author>. Your XML document for a single book would have content like this:</p><p><book></p><p><title> Learning Amazon Web Services

Mark Wilkins

Tags bring sophisticated data coding to integrate information flows across different systems.

What are the benefits of using XML?

Support interbusiness transactions

When a company sells a good or service to another company, the two businesses need to exchange information like cost, specifications, and delivery schedules. With Extensible Markup Language (XML), they can share all the necessary information electronically and close complex deals automatically, without any human intervention.

Maintain data integrity

XML lets you transfer data along with the data’s description, preventing the loss of data integrity. You can use this descriptive information to do the following:

Verify data accuracy
Automatically customize data presentation for different users
Store data consistently across multiple platforms

Improve search efficiency

Computer programs like search engines can sort and categorize XML files more efficiently and precisely than other types of documents. For example, the word mark can be either a noun or a verb. Based on XML tags, search engines can accurately categorize mark for relevant search results. Thus, XML helps computers to interpret natural language more efficiently.

Design flexible applications

With XML, you can conveniently upgrade or modify your application design. Many technologies, especially newer ones, come with built-in XML support. They can automatically read and process XML data files so that you can make changes without having to reformat your entire database.

What are the applications of XML?

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is the underlying technology in thousands of applications, ranging from common productivity tools like word processing to book publishing software and even complex application configuration systems.

Data transfer

You can use XML to transfer data between two systems that store the same data in different formats. For example, your website stores dates in MM/DD/YYYY format, but your accounting system stores dates in DD/MM/YYYY format. You can transfer the data from the website to the accounting system by using XML. Your developers can write code that automatically converts the following:

Website data to XML format
XML data to accounting system data
Accounting system data back to XML format
XML data back to website data

Web applications

XML gives structure to the data that you see on webpages. Other website technologies, like HTML, work with XML to present consistent and relevant data to website visitors. For example, consider an e-commerce website that sells clothes. Instead of showing all clothes to all visitors, the website uses XML to create customized webpages based on user preferences. It shows products from specific brands by filtering the tag.

Documentation

You can use XML to specify the structural information of any technical document. Other programs then process the document structure to present it flexibly. For example, there are XML tags for a paragraph, an item in a numbered list, and a heading. Using these tags, other types of software automatically prepare the document for uses such as printing and webpage publication.

Data type

Many programming languages support XML as a data type. With this support, you can easily write programs in other languages that work directly with XML files.

What are the components of an XML file?

An Extensible Markup Language (XML) file is a text-based document that you can save with the .xml extension. You can write XML similar to other text files. To create or edit an XML file, you can use any of the following:

Text editors like Notepad or Notepad++
Online XML editors
Web browsers

Any XML file includes the following components.

XML document

The tags are used to mark the beginning and end of an XML file. The content within these tags is also called an XML document. It is the first tag that any software will look for to process XML code.

XML declaration

An XML document begins with some information about XML itself. For example, it might mention the XML version that it follows. This opening is called an XML declaration. Here's an example.

XML elements

All the other tags you create within an XML document are called XML elements. XML elements can contain these features:

Text
Attributes
Other elements

All XML documents begin with a primary tag, which is called the root element.

For example, consider the XML file below.

Christine

Stephanie

is the root element; family and aunt are other element names.

XML attributes

XML elements can have other descriptors called attributes. You can define your own attribute names and write the attribute values within quotation marks as shown below.

XML content

The data in XML files is also called XML content. For example, in the XML file, you might see data like this.

Charlie

Steve

The data values Charlie and Steve are the content.

What is an XML schema?

An Extensible Markup Language (XML) schema is a document that describes some rules or limits on the structure of an XML file. You can describe these constraints in several different ways, like these:

Grammatical rules to determine the order of elements
Yes or No conditions that the content must satisfy
Data types for the content in XML files
Constraints for data integrity

For example, an XML schema for bookstores might impose constraints like these:

A book element will have the attributes title and author.
The book element will be nested under a category element with an attribute name.
The price of a book will be a separate element nested under book.

To meet these constraints, we will write the XML file as shown below.

$20

XML schemas enforce consistency in how different software applications create and use XML files. Some industries implement XML schemas that are specific to their operations to reduce complexity in writing XML code for interbusiness data transfer. For example, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML specification for describing computer graphics-related data. Software developers write XML files so that they meet such industry specifications.

What is an XML parser?

An Extensible Markup Language (XML) parser is software that can process or read XML documents to extract the data within them. XML parsers also check the syntax or rules of the XML file and can validate it against a particular XML schema. Because XML is a strict markup language, the parsers will not process the file if there are any validation or syntax errors. For example, the XML parser will give errors if any of these conditions are true:

A closing tag or end tag is missing
Attribute values don’t have quotation marks
A schema condition has not been met

Software applications use XML parsers to transform XML files into native data types. They can thus focus on the application logic without having to go into the details of the XML itself.

How is XML different from HTML?

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the language used in most webpages. A web browser processes the HTML documents and displays them as a multimedia page. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the international community that develops protocols and guidelines to ensure the long-term growth of the web. W3C established both the HTML and Extensible Markup Language (XML) standards that website developers implement for consistency and quality.

XML vs. HTML

While HTML and XML files look very similar, there are some key differences.

Purpose

The purpose of HTML is to present and display data. However, XML stores and transports data.

Syntax rules

There are some minor yet important differences between HTML and XML syntax. For example, XML is case sensitive, but HTML is not. XML parsers will give errors if you write a tag as instead of .

How do AWS services support XML?

All AWS data integration services can process Extensible Markup Language (XML) files. We list some examples below.

AWS Glue is a serverless data integration service that you can use to discover, prepare, and combine data for analytics, machine learning, and application development. AWS Glue DataBrew is a visual data preparation tool that you can use to prepare data with an interactive, point-and-click visual interface without writing code. DataBrew can input all types of file formats, including XML.

Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) is a fully managed message queuing service that you can use to send, store, and receive messages between software components at any volume. Amazon SQS messages can contain up to 256 KB of text data, including XML, JSON, and unformatted text.

Amazon Kinesis makes it easy to collect, process, and analyze real-time, streaming data so you can get timely insights and react quickly to new information. With the key capabilities of Kinesis, you can process streaming data cost effectively at any scale. You also gain the flexibility to choose tools that suit the requirements of your application. Stream, transform, and analyze XML data in real time with Kinesis.

Get started with data integration by creating an AWS account today.

Why XML file is important?

XML stores data in plain text format. This provides a software- and hardware-independent way of storing, transporting, and sharing data. XML also makes it easier to expand or upgrade to new operating systems, new applications, or new browsers, without losing data.

What is XML explain?

Xml (eXtensible Markup Language) is a mark up language. XML is designed to store and transport data. Xml was released in late 90's. it was created to provide an easy to use and store self describing data. XML became a W3C Recommendation on February 10, 1998.