XML

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages. It is classified as an extensible language because it allows its users to define their own elements. Its primary purpose is to help information systems share structured data, particularly via the Internet, and it is used both to encode documents and to serialize data.

Advantages of XML

It supports Unicode, allowing almost any information in any written human language to be communicated.

It can represent common computer science data structures: records, lists and trees.

Its self-documenting format describes structure and field names as well as specific values.

The strict syntax and parsing requirements make the necessary parsing algorithms extremely simple, efficient, and consistent.

XML is heavily used as a format for document storage and processing, both online and offline.

It is based on international standards.

It can be updated incrementally.

It allows validation using schema languages such as XSD and Schematron, which makes effective unit-testing, firewalls, acceptance testing, contractual specification and software construction easier.

The hierarchical structure is suitable for most (but not all) types of documents.

It is platform-independent, thus relatively immune to changes in technology.

Forward and backward compatibility are relatively easy to maintain despite changes in DTD or Schema.

Its predecessor, SGML, has been in use since 1986, so there is extensive experience and software available.

XML in Business World

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) based on XML is widely used in financial world. Since more and more investors and regulators call for financial transparency, XBRL technology could facilitate the process of transferring data, as well as for business reporting. Japanese banks are exemplified by using XBRL during their daily business.

Web publishing uses XML to have one single source for creating and updating all content, which significantly saves time and reduce cost for companies when printing documents. In addition, governments in the world use XML for large documentation and printing maps. Airplane and Car manufactures may use XML technology to print maintenance booklets.

Web searching- Since XML does not have fixed tags, the user is free to define the type of information in their work which means that other users will find their work easily when search on the Web.