Practical uses of XML

[Faithless]

I understand the concept. I've studied how to format it.

But I still don't understand the practical uses of it.

Can you all enlighten me?

Can you point me to some practical applications of it?

What about these web articles with the XML feature? What does that do?

TIA.

[ism]

XML is structured data, with a definition supplied, so it's easy to programatically do a lot of things with the data since you know what to expect, or your program can figure it out. In terms of practical uses, data exchange is the obvious answer.

If you're familiar with SGML, you're already aware of how hard it is to mark data (like poetry) up. XML makes it possible to take poetry in Sanskrit and encode it so it can be transformed and displayed on the web or in print easily, with the proper formatting. My undergrad project involved encoding poetry and revisions (like first and second drafts, as well as different published versions of the same poem) into XML and creating a system to display each version on the web with the proper typographic layout. I did this using XSLT. Assuming my XML schema is correct (I didn't have as much SGML experience as I should have), anyone could take these XML poetry files and publish a book from it with the proper layout.

XML feature of web pages -- the content, with the presentation described by the markup. This is the data in the purest form while retaining what it's supposed to look like. You can strap a CSS file to it and get a nice looking page, and a different one for printing, or you can use XSLT to create almost any other format.

[Yeahman]

It's potential, I believe, is in the promise of a simple standardized content containment format. In its purest form it is free of formating data and easily parsable so that any program can utilize its content as it sees fit.

Where I can see it being of most practice us is in healthcare. If the healthcare industry used standardized DTD (document type definitions for xml) the sharing of information across different systems would be greatest simplified. It wouldn't matter what programs you use. Share data via XML and it's always compatible. For example, the patient_name field in an XML document can be used by any program regardless of what it wants to do with the information.

Basically any industry that has to exchange information could benefit from XML. Since XML contains the data itself plus a declaration of what the data is, the possibilities of what you do with that data are endless. All without you having to actually jump into analyzing the data yourself.

[Faithless]

Thanks gentlemen, this is a good start. Any other thoughts from YW's geekhood would be appreciated.

I can understand this aspect of a common tool for sharing information.

SOAP begins to make sense, then.

(SOAP! Now with XML. Use only as directed.)

[SunWuKong]

XML is overrated. but there are practical uses.

for example, if you've got two systems that are already developed, and you don't want to change anything about them, but they need to communicate with each other. you can use XML.

or if you're a software vendor who writes software for other companies, instead of developing a protocol just so other systems can talk to your software, you can use XML. your clients won't have to spend time to understand a new protocol that they probably won't use anywhere else, nor do they need to write a parser for the new protocol. XML parsers are widely available for free.

it could also be used for configuration of a system. it makes the settings very easy to read for admins and developers. a lot of Java development tools use XML.

all in all, it gives you flexibility and readibility. but i think some people use it when they shouldn't be using it, and they hype it up without really knowing what it's good for. for one thing, when you use XML as a protocol for communication, you're communicating via huge text files whereas bit code might have sufficed. it could slow down your system quite a bit.