Introduction to XML

This section covers the basics of XML. The goal is to give you just enough information to get started so that you understand what XML is all about. (You'll learn more about XML in later sections of the tutorial.) We then outline the major features that make XML great for information storage and interchange, and give you a general idea of how XML can be used.

What Is XML?

XML is a text-based markup language that is fast becoming the standard for data interchange on the Web. As with HTML, you identify data using tags (identifiers enclosed in angle brackets: <...>). Collectively, the tags are known as markup.

But unlike HTML, XML tags identify the data rather than specify how to display it. Whereas an HTML tag says something ...

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