XML Development - A brief outlookby Aswathi P P (Software Programmer, Excellone Technologies)
A true e-commerce interface required for B2B or
retail customers, XML provides the structure for complex data delivery,
client side processing and a standard for presentation. The extensibility
of XML language makes it a very efficient weapon in the hands of
software developers for standardizing the data interchange format
among diverse form of industries. When message brokers and workflow
engines must coordinate transactions among multiple industries or
departments, within an enterprise, they can use XML to join data
from disparate sources into a format that is understandable by all
parties.
The extensible markup language XML is used to describe
the content and structure of data in a document. It is regarded
as the industry standard for delivering content on the Internet
Applications by providing facility to define the new tags. It describes
meaning and the hierarchical structure of data by using tags. For
efficient data interchange between the different software applications
and systems, advanced data types are used with XML functionality.
The content or data is portable across heterogeneous
software applications and system, which ensures separation of the
content and presentation. Distinctive XML syntax using start and
end tags mark up information. Information delimited by tags is usually
known as elements, which is seen in every XML development document.
Besides these top-level elements, sub-elements are also seen.
XML development describes content as well as structure
of a piece of information, of those which perform these functions
separately.
XML Document
DTD's and Schemas are generally used to describe
XML document. DTD (Document Type Definition) defines the basic requirements
on the structures of XML documents. It describes the elements and
attributes that are valid in an XML document and contents in which
they are valid. Or DTD makes it clear as to which tags are allowed
within certain other tags and those, which are optional.
Schemas a recent development in XML development
specifications, are intended to supersede DTD. They describe XML
documents in an elaborate manner. This W3C product, is supposed
to cover the limitations of DTDs.
XSL and XSLT
- The Extensible Style Sheet Language (XSL) is W3C standard for
describing presentation rules that apply to XML documents.
- XSL includes both formatting and transformation language which
functions independently.
- XSLT is XML-based language and W3C specification that describes
how an XML document can be transformed into another XML document,
or into HTML, PDF or some document format.
Conclusion
It is interesting to see how quickly the XML development
standard has been developed, and how a large number of software
vendors have adopted the standard. XML development will be as important
to the future of the Web as HTML has been to the foundation of the
Web. It may also be noted that XML will be the most common tool
for all data manipulation and data transmission.
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