XML

Reprinted from What is XML - March 8, 1999

Like HTML, XML (also known as Extensible Markup Language) is a markup language which relies on the concept of rule-specifying tags and the use of a tag-processing application that knows how to deal with the tags.

However, XML is far more powerful than HTML.

This is because of the "X". XML is "eXtensible". Specifically, rather than providing a set of pre-defined tags, as in the case of HTML, XML specifies the standards with which you can define your own markup languages with their own sets of tags. XML is a meta-markup language which allows you to define an infinite number of markup languages based upon the standards defined by XML.

Let's consider a very simple example. Let's create a new markup language called SCLML (Selena's Client List Markup Language). This language will define tags to represent contact people and information about contact people.

The set of tags will be simple. However, they will be expressive. Unlike <UL> and <LI> XML tags can be immediately understood just by reading the document.

<CONTACT>
<NAME>Gunther Birznieks</NAME>
<ID>001</ID>
<COMPANY>Bob's Fish Store</COMPANY>
<EMAIL>gunther@bobsfishstore.com</EMAIL>
<PHONE>662-9999</PHONE>
<STREET>1234 4th St.</STREET>
<CITY>New York</CITY>
<STATE>New York</STATE>
<ZIP>Zip: 10024</ZIP>
</CONTACT>

<CONTACT>
<NAME>Susan Czigany</NAME>
<ID>002</ID>
<COMPANY>Netscape</COMPANY>
<EMAIL>susan@eudora.org</EMAIL>
<PHONE>555-1234</PHONE>
<STREET>9876 Hazen Blvd.</STREET>
<CITY>San Jose</CITY>
<STATE>California</STATE>
<ZIP>90034</ZIP>
</CONTACT>

What you see above is a very simple "XML document". As you can see, it looks pretty similar to an HTML document.

But don't forget, as we said before, it is not enough to simply encode (markup) the data. For the data to be decoded by someone or something else, the encoding markup languages must follow standard rules including:

1. The syntax for marking up
2. The meaning behind the markup

In other words, a processing application must know what a valid markup is (perhaps a tag) and what to do with it if it is valid? After all, how would Netscape know what to do with the above document? What in the world is a <PHONE> tag? Is it a legal tag? How should it be displayed? Our markup language must somehow communicate the syntax of the markup so that the processing application will know what to do with it.

In XML, the definition of a valid markup is handled by a Document Type Definition (DTD) which communicates the structure of the markup language. The DTD specifies what it means to be a valid tag (the syntax for marking up).

We'll discuss the details of DTDs later. For now, just get comfortable with the idea of a DTD as a separate component to the equation.

Yet we must also communicate the meaning of the markup as well as the syntax.

To specify what valid tags mean, XML documents are also associated with "style sheets" which provide GUI instructions for a processing application like a web browser. A style sheet, the details of which we will discuss later, might specify display instructions such as:

1. Anytime you see a <CONTACT>, display it using a <UL> tag. Similarly, </CONTACT> tags should be converted to </UL>
2. All <NAME> tags can be substituted for <LI> tags and </NAME> tags should be ignored.
3. All <EMAIL> tags can be substituted for <LI> tags and </EMAIL> tags should be ignored.

In this example, the style sheet utilizes the functionality of HTML to define the formatting of SCLML. But if the XML document was being processed by a program other than a web browser, the HTML translation step might be bypassed.

Processing applications combine the logic of the style sheet, the DTD, and the data of the SCLML document and display it according to the rules and the data.

But wait, isn't this quite complex? Now instead of a single HTML document which defines the data and the rules to display the data, we have an SCLML document, a DTD, AND a style sheet. That's three pieces as opposed to just one.

Further, we need a processing agent that can do the work of putting the DTD, style sheet, and SCLML document together. Remember, web browsers are made to read a specific markup language (like HTML), not any markup language. That means we have three documents to pull together plus one processing program to write or buy. What a mess.

Actually however, though there are a few more hurdles to jump in order to use XML, there are several reasons why all this is worth it. Let's take a look at them. . . .