What Is An XML File And How To Open Them?
What Is An XML File And How To Open Them?
XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. Its purpose is to describe and structure data on the internet, for mobile applications, and elsewhere. Are you guys wondering how it works and what it is used for? Here's the explanation in detail.
What is Markup Language?
The markup language puts text captions or adds additional information. These annotations remain invisible to the end user. The "machine", like your browser, reads these annotations before processing and serving the text as instructed by the markup command.
An example of a well-known markup language is HTML (HyperText Markup Language). While HTML (and other programming languages) define the appearance of a website, you should never see a trail of code. What you see is the interpretation by your browser. For example, font formatting or embedded images.
How Does XML Work?
XML is a meta markup language developed for the internet. It is a simplification of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), the mother of all markup languages. It is also extensible as users can add and define new tags or building blocks. By adding building blocks, users can adapt XML to their needs. To explain how all this works, we have to use HTML and CSS as examples.
Why XML Related to HTML
XML is similar to HTML, but because users can add their own building blocks, it allows for more flexibility. The main difference between HTML and XML is that HTML defines how the data looks, whereas XML defines what the data is. That's why XML can't replace HTML, instead it extends it.
To describe data, XML relies on Document Type Definition (DTD). You could say that this is a machine's dictionary. This allows the machine to understand the markup language. Thus, each document must start by specifying the type of DTD to be used. HTML uses the same principle. The code that you will find on many websites can look something like this:
<!doctype html public "-//w3c//DTD html 4.0//en">
This particular example tells your browser that the DTD html 4.0 is in English. The browser can then go ahead and compare each given command with its DTD, which tells it what to do with each command. That's how the <b>command translates to bold text or underlined <u>text.
How CSS Solve Problems With HTML
The problem with HTML is that it consists of a static set of commands. Every time you want to define a certain attribute, you need to type this command. Again and again. While this makes HTML easy to learn, it also limits its flexibility.
For example, you want to change the size or color of a header that you have used a dozen times throughout your website. Imagine you have to change each attribute of a dozen headers individually. How boring!
In web design, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) have eliminated this laborious editing of HTML documents. Now, you simply add the attribute “H1” to your header on your website and in your style sheet define what the “H1” header looks like. And when you want to change the appearance of that header, you only change it in one place, which is the style sheet. Problem solved.
How XML Handles Data
XML structure and define data. It doesn't interfere with certain attributes, such as size or color. Building blocks are similar to HTML tags associated with CSS. It clearly defines the title, header, text and other elements of the document and leaves the interpretation to the machine.
What Is XML Used For?
XML has found wide application. Today, various programs and devices use it to handle, organize, store, transmit, and display data. For example, it is widely used in B2B data exchange. And it is also the standard for Office file formats, including Microsoft Office files and Google Docs.
Instead of integrating data into an HTML document, it outsources it to separate XML files. Since it saves data in plain text format, saving is independent of your platform and your data can be exported, imported or moved more easily.
Many other languages are based on XML, including XHTML, WAP for handheld devices, or RSS for feeds. For example, as a commenter pointed out, if you add /feed to the end of the URL of the article you are reading, you will see the RSS XML code on this site: click here to view.
How to Open XML Files
As mentioned above, XML stores data in plain text. That's why you can open XML files with a number of different programs. In general, right-click the XML file, choose Open with from the menu, and choose program. You can try one of the programs below:
* Windows Notepad or other text editor
*Notepad++
* Any Web Browser
You can also try an online XML viewer like the one from Code Beautify. You can read the file with any of the programs above, but Notepad++ or a dedicated XML editor will color the XML tags and thus make it easier to understand the data structure. Note, however, that these programs cannot run XML because all you will find in the document is structured data.
Conclusion
XML is just a plain text file that uses special tags to describe the structure and other features of the document. Used to define syntax for encoding human- and machine-readable documents. But XML is now being replaced, JSON is the most popular alternative to integrate data. However, if you are a programmer, you will still have to work with XML occasionally.
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Resa Risyan
Just an ordinary person who wants to share a little knowledge, hopefully the knowledge I provide can be useful for all of us. Keep in mind! Useful knowledge is an investment in the afterlife.
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