<?What is XML?>

Standardized General Markup Language (SGML) was developed in the late 70s for the International Standards Organization (ISO), long before the conception of the World Wide Web. It facilitated the exchange of data between computer systems at a time when data was stored in a plethora of proprietary and incompatible file formats and standards. SGML is still used today throughout the federal government and large corporations to maintain conformity across diverse computerized systems.

Spawned from SGML, HTML came along in the early 90s to facilitate the transmission of scientific and other data in an accessible way across the Internet and has exploded into near complete acceptance. But from the very beginning of the World Wide Web people were disappointed by the weaknesses of HTML. Designers point at its dearth of design capabilities, while developers criticize its lack of data-awareness.

ASP, PHP, ColdFusion, Java and other languages are attempts to cobble additional capabilities into web applications. While each of these languages are robust and popular, they also have their limitations and are, by their very nature, proprietary. And they don’t change the fact that HTML is primarily concerned with the presentation of the data and ignores, for the most part, “what” is being presented.

In a way, XML shifts back to the roots of SGML and addresses “content” over “presentation”, much the same way databases do. Why? We already have database-driven websites, what’s the need for a new language that favors data over design? The answer can be found in two words: access and repurposing.

Access

The problem with many existing Websites is that data stored in databases is lost to the efficiencies of the Web. In other words, it is difficult if not impossible to search and find the information contained within thousands of files and records. Data stored in some web databases is simply ignored by search engines. As corporations, government, newspapers, magazines and professional associations try harder and harder each day to make volumes of news, facts, and other data available to their customers and the general public, there was an obvious need for a new solution, but a standardized, non-proprietary one.

Repurposing

Repurposing is a word coined in the last decade to describe the need to take products or information from one environment and employ them in a completely different area. For example, you can take the new car brochure you just picked up at the dealership and make it available on the Internet, and vice versa.

You might say, “I already do this. I simply print the brochure as a PDF and upload it to the website.”

Using PDFs, although universal, is not an ideal solution because it requires users to download and install the Acrobat plug-in and then to download the PDF, both of which can take tedious minutes, especially on dial-up connections. What developers have been looking for is a browser-based solution that can work without additional plug-ins and download times.

Enter XML. Unlike typical databases, XML stores the data in plain text. Such information can be made available to search engines more easily, and with the help of other evolving techniques and technologies, such as XSL and CSS, the data can be presented in a variety of interesting and appealing ways.

And best of all, the data can be repurposed more easily!