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Introduction To XML: What You Should Already Know

XML was designed to transport and store data, unlike HTML which was designed to display data. XML allows users to define their own element tags. XML documents form a tree structure with a root element and hierarchical relationships between parent and child elements. XML documents must follow syntax rules like having matching opening and closing tags and properly nested elements.

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61 views

Introduction To XML: What You Should Already Know

XML was designed to transport and store data, unlike HTML which was designed to display data. XML allows users to define their own element tags. XML documents form a tree structure with a root element and hierarchical relationships between parent and child elements. XML documents must follow syntax rules like having matching opening and closing tags and properly nested elements.

Uploaded by

Ashish Tiwari
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction to XML

XML was designed to transport and store data.

HTML was designed to display data.

What You Should Already Know


Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:

 HTML
 JavaScript

What is XML?
 XML stands for EXtensible Markup Language
 XML is a markup language much like HTML
 XML was designed to carry data, not to display data
 XML tags are not predefined. You must define your own tags
 XML is designed to be self-descriptive
 XML is a W3C Recommendation

The Difference Between XML and HTML


XML is not a replacement for HTML.

XML and HTML were designed with different goals:

 XML was designed to transport and store data, with focus on what data is
 HTML was designed to display data, with focus on how data looks

HTML is about displaying information, while XML is about carrying information.


XML Does Not DO Anything
Maybe it is a little hard to understand, but XML does not DO anything. XML was created to
structure, store, and transport information.

The following example is a note to Tove, from Jani, stored as XML:

<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

The note above is quite self descriptive. It has sender and receiver information, it also has a
heading and a message body.

But still, this XML document does not DO anything. It is just information wrapped in tags.
Someone must write a piece of software to send, receive or display it.

With XML You Invent Your Own Tags


The tags in the example above (like <to> and <from>) are not defined in any XML standard.
These tags are "invented" by the author of the XML document.

That is because the XML language has no predefined tags.

The tags used in HTML are predefined. HTML documents can only use tags defined in the
HTML standard (like <p>, <h1>, etc.).

XML allows the author to define his/her own tags and his/her own document structure.

XML is Not a Replacement for HTML


XML is a complement to HTML.

It is important to understand that XML is not a replacement for HTML. In most web
applications, XML is used to transport data, while HTML is used to format and display the data.

XML Tree
XML documents form a tree structure that starts at "the root" and branches to "the leaves".

An Example XML Document


XML documents use a self-describing and simple syntax:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>


<note>
  <to>Tove</to>
  <from>Jani</from>
  <heading>Reminder</heading>
  <body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

The first line is the XML declaration. It defines the XML version (1.0) and the encoding used
(ISO-8859-1 = Latin-1/West European character set).

The next line describes the root element of the document (like saying: "this document is a
note"):

<note>

The next 4 lines describe 4 child elements of the root (to, from, heading, and body):

<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>

And finally the last line defines the end of the root element:

</note>

You can assume, from this example, that the XML document contains a note to Tove from Jani.

Don't you agree that XML is pretty self-descriptive?


XML Documents Form a Tree Structure
XML documents must contain a root element. This element is "the parent" of all other elements.

The elements in an XML document form a document tree. The tree starts at the root and
branches to the lowest level of the tree.

All elements can have sub elements (child elements):

<root>
  <child>
    <subchild>.....</subchild>
  </child>
</root>

The terms parent, child, and sibling are used to describe the relationships between elements.
Parent elements have children. Children on the same level are called siblings (brothers or sisters).

All elements can have text content and attributes (just like in HTML).

Example:

The image above represents one book in the XML below:


<bookstore>
  <book category="COOKING">
     <title lang="en">Everyday Italian</title>
     <author>Giada De Laurentiis</author>
     <year>2005</year>
     <price>30.00</price>
  </book>
  <book category="CHILDREN">
     <title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>
     <author>J K. Rowling</author>
     <year>2005</year>
     <price>29.99</price>
  </book>
  <book category="WEB">
     <title lang="en">Learning XML</title>
     <author>Erik T. Ray</author>
     <year>2003</year>
     <price>39.95</price>
  </book>
</bookstore>

The root element in the example is <bookstore>. All <book> elements in the document are
contained within <bookstore>.

The <book> element has 4 children: <title>,< author>, <year>, <price>.

XML Syntax Rules

The syntax rules of XML are very simple and logical. The rules are easy to learn, and easy to
use.

All XML Elements Must Have a Closing Tag


In HTML, some elements do not have to have a closing tag:
<p>This is a paragraph
<p>This is another paragraph

In XML, it is illegal to omit the closing tag. All elements must have a closing tag:

<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is another paragraph</p>

Note: You might have noticed from the previous example that the XML declaration did not have
a closing tag. This is not an error. The declaration is not a part of the XML document itself, and
it has no closing tag.

XML Tags are Case Sensitive


XML tags are case sensitive. The tag <Letter> is different from the tag <letter>.

Opening and closing tags must be written with the same case:

<Message>This is incorrect</message>
<message>This is correct</message>

Note: "Opening and closing tags" are often referred to as "Start and end tags". Use whatever you
prefer. It is exactly the same thing.

XML Elements Must be Properly Nested


In HTML, you might see improperly nested elements:

<b><i>This text is bold and italic</b></i>

In XML, all elements must be properly nested within each other:

<b><i>This text is bold and italic</i></b>

In the example above, "Properly nested" simply means that since the <i> element is opened
inside the <b> element, it must be closed inside the <b> element.
XML Documents Must Have a Root Element
XML documents must contain one element that is the parent of all other elements. This element
is called the root element.

<root>
  <child>
    <subchild>.....</subchild>
  </child>
</root>

XML Attribute Values Must be Quoted


XML elements can have attributes in name/value pairs just like in HTML.

In XML, the attribute values must always be quoted.

Study the two XML documents below. The first one is incorrect, the second is correct:

<note date=12/11/2007>
  <to>Tove</to>
  <from>Jani</from>
</note>

<note date="12/11/2007">
  <to>Tove</to>
  <from>Jani</from>
</note>

The error in the first document is that the date attribute in the note element is not quoted.

Entity References
Some characters have a special meaning in XML.

If you place a character like "<" inside an XML element, it will generate an error because the
parser interprets it as the start of a new element.

This will generate an XML error:

<message>if salary < 1000 then</message>

To avoid this error, replace the "<" character with an entity reference:

<message>if salary &lt; 1000 then</message>

There are 5 predefined entity references in XML:

&lt; < less than

&gt; > greater than

&amp; & ampersand 

&apos; ' apostrophe

&quot; " quotation mark

Note: Only the characters "<" and "&" are strictly illegal in XML. The greater than character is
legal, but it is a good habit to replace it.

Comments in XML
The syntax for writing comments in XML is similar to that of HTML.

<!-- This is a comment -->

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