It’s 11:00 pm, on a Friday night…….so why not write an article about the various uses of XML? You’ve probably heard that term before, and I’m sure you will hear it again. In my mind, it’s a way to make the information displayed on the internet more concise, searchable, and organized.

I first became interested in XML when I found out that it’s something technical writers should know, and that it had something to do with RSS feeds.

RSS Feeds:

RSS aggregator programs read RSS feeds on news sites and blog sites to allow you, the reader, to become aware of new and recent information without having to do it yourself. The RSS aggregator reads the RSS feed which is written in XML. The funny thing, is that the RSS aggregator program reads the feed in XML, but you could too, since XML is human-readable! Of course though, you’re not a robot, and so I’m sure you don’t want to be the one to scan all those feeds and see which ones are new, and then display them to the internet.

MathML:

Anything about math is cool, right? Well, now they’ve figured out how to use XML to describe math formulas and bring them to the World Wide Web. And you thought you were done with math after first year calculus.

I’m pleased to tell you that the XML not only describes how math formulas should be displayed (presentation) but even what the different formula components mean (content). Read more about it at http://www.w3.org/Mathand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MathML

Searching:

You can use XML to define the type of information contained in a document, and thus make that information easier to search. That is because unlike HTML, XML describes the information rather than just presents it. So for instance, you could use XML to denote that Chrysanthemum is a book title rather than a plant by using a book title tag <book_title>Chrysanthemum</book_title>.

Now a web robot would know that in this instance, Chrysanthemum is a book title and not a flower.

Other Uses:

Now what I will do, is list a few other uses of XML and send you off to learn more about them on your own. I know I’ve made XML sound so exciting, so you won’t be able to wait any longer will you?

DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture); SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics); Databases; AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML).

Find me on Twitter: jacbird