XML - What is it for a beginner?

[anshul]

What is XML? What can it do exactly? Why it is needed?
You named this forum XML, including XUL and XSL? What's these all?

I know HTML/XHTML used with CSS. I know to syndicate a RSS and let other people syndicate mine Web site.

I wanted to know more about XML. It's said it's important in B2B (Business to Business) applications?

I'm from India; I heard one company I-Flex here uses XML/Java for financial/banking solutions; I thought great community here, may hint me about this great technology :)

[BradleyT]

We use XML to get shipping quotes from UPS and FedEx.

We send them a query and they reply with an XML file. So it doesn't matter what platform or technology we're using as long as we have the ability to parse an XML file. This is a huge benefit to companies like UPS and FedEx because they only have to develop one output file that serves hundreds of different client configurations.

[anshul]

Okay. I've one small question:
Is it safe, serving data through XML on Web? Databases keep data safe, I think. How we're sharing data using XML?

Also, can someone point resources to learn the trendy technology(especially XSLT)..

[coolma]

Data security is another layer in this case.

XML is a standard format of contents which allows applications exchange data in a clear manner.

Data over the network can be encrypted, then decryted.

That is very general point of view of the issue.

[Webheavy]

XML is heirarchical data. SQL interacts with tabular data.

Hierarchical data is a mindset.

If you can model a business problem with heirarchical data, many business rules that are pure torture in SQL become trivial in XSLT.

Not all business uses are hierarchical. Some are tabular and relational. If you have a very firm grasp of the structural interaction between XML and tabular data then you know what XML is for.

[Conscientious Reject]

I have also had a hard time with this. Now that I am getting it, it's pretty cool stuff. From what I understand is that XML is a way to share data, or access it using schemas and such. However, you probabully wouldn't want people clipping away at your stuff an stealing your content, so you would use DTD's to regulate the usage i.e., you know that you wanted your name, and title added to editorial. Now, that's not to say it's all relative to the designer. But the real power of XML is XLST. This allows us all to output your editorial in our own site using our own template. Not to mention, now you can make one template, and simply update your XML whenever you feel like it. With the for-each conditional you can even repeat code "snippets" i.e., you wanted the same table, or image used for every different editorial.

[ac1982]

Hi
I am a beginner in XML too and I am using www.w3schools.com. I think is a good way to start learning XML and XSLT as it covers the basic staff you need to start.

[anshul]

SitePoint another one for beginners.