Do you use XML in your web desgning or programming?

He has: 286 posts

Joined: Mar 2003

I understand that XML is the "parent" markup language XHTML, and that it allows data to be displayed in a variety of formats. However, is it necessary for good web design?

I'm currently the webmaster for two alumni sites and am editor of an astronomy newsletter which is posted on the web. Consequently, I'm learning more about CSS and XHTML. I've read that XML-compliance will be necessary for web sites in the near future.

Any thoughts on the subject?

Thanks in advance.

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Not for web design per se. You can't really use it as a replacement for xhtml or html because of the lack of support for native xml in Internet Explorer (they also have no plans to support the xml mime type in the future).

I don't really see html/xhtml going away anytime soon, especially with the renewed development on HTML 5.

Xml is usefull for various other types of actions. It's a good format for standardized data storage and can be used in many applications to maniuplate data. RSS and sitemaps work with xml.

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,102 posts

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Isn't Microsoft's .NET framework all about XML? I just started learning C# and XML is mentioned quite a bit. If the programming languages MS supports in Visual Studio are all about XML, isn't there a decent chance they're going to transfer that XML support over to IE?

If Microsoft is on board with XML, you can bet XML is going to be sticking around. I have no idea how it will affect your HTML code, but if you write web programs on the Microsoft stack, you'll need to be versed in XML.

blater's picture

They have: 2 posts

Joined: May 2008

XHTML is in XML, as is HTML5.

The XHTML/HTML5 languages are implemented in XML and the definition of the subset of XML that it uses is what you're referencing when you put the funny DOCTYPE statement at the top of an XHTML file e.g.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

So if you write XHTML compliant pages you are already using XML. XML-compliance means writing XHTML compliant pages, which isn't difficult.

Abhishek Reddy's picture

He has: 3,348 posts

Joined: Jul 2001

On the client side, I currently use no more XML than XHTML and RSS.

On the server side, I use either YAML or regular code itself: in particular, Lisp s-expressions have a similar tree-like notation, while Python or Ruby code is terse and human-readable.

As standardised interchange formats, XML applications really thrive, but there are better alternatives for pure storage. XML's formalisation and pervasiveness makes it almost ideal for sending data over networks in a client-agnostic way. Its limitations (verbosity) make it less than ideal for internal use.

Expect to continue seeing more XML application markup sent over the wire in the future, especially as web apps grow, but not so much within the server.

I just started learning C# and XML is mentioned quite a bit. If the programming languages MS supports in Visual Studio are all about XML, isn't there a decent chance they're going to transfer that XML support over to IE?

XML support is ubiquitous in all kinds of systems -- there's no risk of it going away (despite MS finally joining the party Wink). IE7 does support viewing and validating XML documents.

Smiling

He has: 629 posts

Joined: May 2007

I was interested to come across an example of CITE and QUOTE tags that uses XHTML 2.0.

Work on XHTML is clearly going forward - More on XHTML is here.

Cordially, David
--
delete from internet where user_agent="MSIE" and version < 8;

They have: 3 posts

Joined: Jul 2008

The use of XML has become widespread, but much of it is not well formed. When it is well formed, it's often of poor design, which makes processing and maintenance very difficult.

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epathchina's picture

They have: 7 posts

Joined: May 2008

I konwn something about HTML,but don't know XML,now,i'am learning it ,and found it's usefull for us to revelation our website。

They have: 3 posts

Joined: Apr 2010

Yes, I am using XML for web-design. It demonstrate how to generate visual output using XML DTDs, Namespaces, CSS, XSL, and XSLT. I can give you one basic example file is used throughout the book to demonstrate features of CSS XPath and XSLT. Including working with XML, database administration, and connecting sites to databases.

They have: 1 posts

Joined: Apr 2010

not too much..but its required only to make up better linking between pages and making pages a little more search engine friendly...

rtroxel wrote:
I understand that XML is the "parent" markup language XHTML, and that it allows data to be displayed in a variety of formats. However, is it necessary for good web design?

I'm currently the webmaster for two alumni sites and am editor of an astronomy newsletter which is posted on the web. Consequently, I'm learning more about CSS and XHTML. I've read that XML-compliance will be necessary for web sites in the near future.

Any thoughts on the subject?

Thanks in advance.

They have: 33 posts

Joined: Apr 2010

You really do not need to learn XML for beautiful designs. XML family languages are just markup languages. For beauty, learn good CSS techniques and practice graphic designing.

They have: 3 posts

Joined: Apr 2011

It's a good question. I use a XML for creating a sitemap. It is one of good way to create a sitemap. It provide some good feature for creating a css.

They have: 10 posts

Joined: Apr 2011

Hi,XML stands for extensible markup language and it is easy to comprehend because you can include or write own tag in the web page using the xml language so it is flexible and so understandable language.

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