Questions tagged [xml]

A simple, very flexible text format that stands for eXtensible Markup Language, that can be used to exchange, share, and store data. It is easily parsed by computers, but is also readable by programmers. Use this tag for questions related to topics about using XML.

Wikipedia has a great description about XML. Here is a quote about it:

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a set of rules for encoding documents in both human-readable and machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards.

Extensible - XML is extensible. It lets you define your own tags.

Markup - The most attractive feature of XML has to be its ability to allow its user to create their own tags. The tags that can be created will be similar to tags in HTML. But with XML you are afforded the opportunity to define your own tags.

Language - XML is a language that is very similar to HTML. But it’s much more flexible because it allows to create custom tags. In this way XML acts like a meta-language: a language that allows us to create or define other languages. For example, with XML we can create other languages, such as RSS.

For more details about using tag XML, refer to StackOverflow.

256 questions
17
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2 answers

What is the importance of XML in the world of JSON?

How important is it to learn XML when JSON is able to do almost all that I need? Having said that, I use JSON mainly for AJAX requests and obtaining data from various APIs. I am a total newbie to web development and the reason I am asking this is…
Rasmus
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15
votes
4 answers

Which one to choose: XML attribute or Sub node?

We want to export some data from our data base as XML. For example, a Person can have age, name and some other properties. We have two choices to define the XML format. Choice #1: 16
ZijingWu
  • 1,057
14
votes
3 answers

What are advantages of XML over S-expressions(-ish) notation?

I would like to ask a question about XML and S-expressions(-ish) notation. S-expressions are pretty old; they are also really simple. We could consider two forms that are equal in meaning, different in syntax: (xml code taken from Polish…
12
votes
8 answers

How important is XML for a developer?

Is it must that every developer should know XML? How important is XML for a developer? Any suggestion...
ACP
  • 1,035
4
votes
7 answers

XML in the attribute of other XML

Today, another developer was talking to me about how he addressed an issue he was working on. The solution he found was to stick a string of escaped XML into the attribute of another XML element. In my head I was screaming "Is that even safe and…
4
votes
2 answers

Is it a bad practice to use empty node with value attribute in XML?

I created XML parsing logic that forces XML to be formatted like this: And then I started to think that a more elegant way would be
Danio
  • 141
3
votes
7 answers

Is it possible to write application-level logic in an XML or plain text format?

For example, a system where the developer does not need to write source code any more, instead they can using XML or some defined text to construct the application-level logic.
Ted Wong
  • 1,589
2
votes
1 answer

OMG ASTM and weird languages (like Scheme, Ocaml, Haskell)

Abstract Syntax Tree Metamodel (ASTM) is an OMG standard to represent ASTs. In my very partial and limited understanding (I only spend an hour or two glancing into that spec), it is notably defining some XML representation for some kind of ASTs, and…
2
votes
2 answers

Structuring the XML Response

I'm designing an XML response for a consuming application to take in, and I'm weighing two different designs. Currently I have a design as follows (where the Product element can repeat):
Ryan
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1
vote
1 answer

Canonical representation of a class object containing a list element in XML

I see that most implementations of JAX-RS represent a class object containing a list of elements as follows (assume a class House containing a list of People) Adam
dendini
  • 214
1
vote
1 answer

Loading XML File

I'm using xml to store cross-program information. This information is used in some webpages and in C# programs. When the information is altered, these alterations are not displayed right away in the webpages, they keep on displaying the information…
Jamiro14
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  • 4
0
votes
2 answers

Looking for a large collection of XML files

Hey, I'm writing a program that I need to test with 1000s of XML files - any idea where I can get some?
Robert
  • 135
  • 4
0
votes
1 answer

Should XML structure affect digital signature?

I have an XML document like this: 1 I sign this document using a DLL-library, provided by crypto provider, and get a document like this:
-1
votes
3 answers

XML: Multiple roots + text content outside the root. Does anyone do it?

I have another one of those "is it done in XML" questions (my last one about xml comments hasn't been answered if anyone has a good explanation) I was just wondering if anyone, anywhere would: Use multiple root elements in an XML document Put text…
-3
votes
1 answer

types of encoding in xml

How the encodings work? Which encodings can be used in XML? To avoid errors XML encoding while using PHP I heard about Character Encodings: Source Encodings: Target Encodings: May i know what is the Difference between them?
Harsh
  • 289