What is XML

XML - Extensible Markup Language

XML is a markup language that allows you to add meaningful tags to your text or data - for example <city>Kingston</city> is the capital of <country>Jamaica</country>. You can then use stylesheets to define how your custom tags "translate" or show the data on a web page.

While XML is not going to replace HTML any time soon, is is much more powerful than HTML because it can be used by other web applications such as email and databases. If you understand HTML, it will be much easier to learn XML - see our HTML tutorial here.

Browsers are starting to be build with XML support but because there is still no XML standard, it relies on stylesheets to define what color or font the text should be, where the block should be positioned on a page, etc.... and you can use one stylesheet to translate your XML into HTML, another into WML and so on.

The following are useful sites if you want to learn more about XML.

XML 101
An Internet.com site featuring XML articles and examples.

The XML FAQ
Frequently asked questions about XML by the W3C Consortium.

XML.COM
Keep up to date with the happenings in XML development.

XML Editors

Vervet