Do you need to use XML is your web pages?
February 19, 2005
XML is another one of the big buzzword these days, it is an important technology that is widely used, but that doesn’t mean you should look for ways to use it.
Technology is there to solve problems, so if the problem warrants the use of a particular piece, then by all means use it, but not just for the sake of using it!
HOW KILLERSITES USES XML
I use XML daily for application server (web servers on steroids) configurations and for simple data storage.
Typically you wouldn’t use XML directly in a web page unless for example, you wanted to create an RSS feed – RSS is not really meant for human eyes, though it is human readable.
You can check out the killersites forum’s RSS feed if you’re curious about XML.
XML’S PURPOSE
Remember that XML is just a way to structure and describe data. Programmers use tools built into programming languages to help them read and use the data.
Many programming languages have built in support for XML reading and manipulation – languages that include Java, C#, PHP among several others.
On the other hand …
There is an XML based mark-up language you can use in your web pages: XHTML. I should mention though, that there are problems using true XHTML – IE6 doesn’t handle it properly.
CONCLUSION
Don’t go crazy about XML, it is much more of a tool for programmers to exchange data, configure servers, and perhaps used as format to save data.
When it comes to making web pages, think HTML, CSS and maybe a little JavaScript for some DOM manipulation.
Originally published: January 20th, 2004
