Questions tagged [xml]

A simple, very flexible text format that stands for eXtensible Markup Language, that can be used to exchange, share, and store data. It is easily parsed by computers, but is also readable by programmers. Use this tag for questions related to topics about using XML.

Wikipedia has a great description about XML. Here is a quote about it:

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a set of rules for encoding documents in both human-readable and machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards.

Extensible - XML is extensible. It lets you define your own tags.

Markup - The most attractive feature of XML has to be its ability to allow its user to create their own tags. The tags that can be created will be similar to tags in HTML. But with XML you are afforded the opportunity to define your own tags.

Language - XML is a language that is very similar to HTML. But it’s much more flexible because it allows to create custom tags. In this way XML acts like a meta-language: a language that allows us to create or define other languages. For example, with XML we can create other languages, such as RSS.

For more details about using tag XML, refer to StackOverflow.

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Why is XML called a "language" exactly?

I've been wondering why XML has an L in its name. By itself, XML doesn't "do" anything. It's just a data storage format, not a language! Languages "do" things. The way you get XML to "do" stuff, to turn it into a language proper, is to add xmlns…
Mr Lister
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Can we replace XML with JSON entirely?

I'm sure lots of developers are familiar with XML and JSON, and they've used both of them. Thus no point in explaining what they are, and what is their purpose, even in brief. If we try to map their concepts, we can say (correct me if I'm…
Saeed Neamati
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Why not XHTML5?

So, HTML5 is the Big Step Forward, I'm told. The last step forward we took that I'm aware of was the introduction of XHTML. The advantages were obvious: simplicity, strictness, the ability to use standard XML parsers and generators to work with…
jameshfisher
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If XML is so bad.....why do so many people use it?

I understand the purpose of XML, but I always hear people complain about how BAD it is? I don't really understand whats so bad about it? I usually hear the terms "bloated" and "slow" tossed around. But I guess as programmers, what do you mainly use…
user6791
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Why is XML type safe?

Why do they say that XML provides type safety and how is it expressed in the XML itself? How is it different from JSON (for example) which (as I understand) is not type safe?
user3339411
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Large file / data transfer in a Microservice Architecture

My company is currently working on adopting a microservice architecture but we are encountering some growing pains (shock!) along the way. One of the key contention points we are facing is how to communicate large quantities of data between our…
PremiumTier
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Why do we need URIs for XML namespaces?

I am trying to figure out why we need URIs for XML namespaces and I cannot find a purpose for that. Can anyone brighten me a little showing their use on a concrete example? EDIT: Ok so for instance: I have this from…
Patryk
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What are the advantages of storing xml in a relational database?

I was poking around the AdventureWorks database today and I noticed that a number of tables (HumanResources.JobCandidate and Sales.Individual for example) have a column which is storing xml data. What I would to know is, what is the advantage of…
Chris
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Why can't an xml comment contain two hyphens

I was applying markdown comments in the xml comments of a config file when the XmlParser reported that two hyphens (--) are not allowed in xml comments. Checking the XML Specification, it appears that xml comment isn't designed to contain two…
OnesimusUnbound
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What's the difference between a marshaller and a serializer?

...and unmarshalling/deserializing? Wikipedia's explanation leaves me none-the-wiser! I'm a Java programmer, in case the terminology is used differently in different languages.
spume
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Why is XML not called EML?

From Wikipedia Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification[4] produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open…
Raynos
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Duplicating documentation on interface implementations/overrides good or bad?

So we have an interface like so /// /// Interface for classes capable of creating foos /// public interface ICreatesFoo { /// /// Creates foos /// void Create(Foo foo); /// /// Does Bar…
Earlz
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Relation and differences between SGML, XML, HTML and XHTML

I was wondering what "profile" means in Wikipedia: XML is a profile of an ISO standard SGML, and most of XML comes from SGML unchanged. According to http://xml-tips.assistprogramming.com/sgml-xml-html-xhtml-all-together.html: HTML is a subset…
Tim
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XSLT and possible alternatives

I had a look at XSLT for transforming one XML file into another one (HTML, etc.). Now while I see that there are benefits to XSLT (being a standardized and used tool) I am reluctant for a couple of reasons XSLT processors seem to be quite huge /…
wirrbel
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What is the importance of XML in the world of JSON?

How important is it to learn XML when JSON is able to do almost all that I need? Having said that, I use JSON mainly for AJAX requests and obtaining data from various APIs. I am a total newbie to web development and the reason I am asking this is…
Rasmus
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