XML only good for RSS?

Orc · 02-29-2008, 10:43 AM

XML seems really only good for RSS, say you have a Book checking site, that checks newest books out.

And you have an XML file that grabs really simple syndicated feeds, that would be used to grab all the books titles, authors, etc.

Output them on the main site, this rss feed would come from a provider, which I wouldn't know of for books.

But you get my drift, though they also associate XML as a good language for Mobile Phones, and stuff like that.

Though, as XML's main purpose, the possibilities are endless, though I wonder how you would go about importing your own custom tags into HTML documents for your own use.

DeMo · 02-29-2008, 05:10 PM

There are more uses to XML other than RSS.

You can use it to organize and store simple data like configuration files for your application.

Code:

<screen>
  <width>1024</width>
  <height>768</heigth>
</screen>

Let's say you're creating a CMS or a Blog system and you have a plugin architecture that users can use to enhance the functionality of the product. You can define that plugins for your system must come with a info.xml file following this structure:

Code:

<plugin>
  <name>My Plugin</name>
  <author>John Doe</author>
  <description>This plugin is useless</description>
  <version>1.0</version>
  <releasedate>01/01/2008</releasedate>
</plugin>

This would make it a lot easier for you to extract info from each installed plugin.

XML is also used as a data interchange format. Take AJAX as an example, the X in AJAX stands for "XML" because the data is commonly returned in XML format. Sometimes you need to export data from some place to import it in another, in this case you can create an exporter that writes the data in XML format and then the importer that reads data from XML files.

Another use is for Web-RPC (Remote Procedure Calls), take a look here for an example, it shows how you can query a BOINC project for user information, the data is returned as XML.

I've listed some of the common uses of XML but there's really a lot more to it than it seems.

Orc · 02-29-2008, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeMo

There are more uses to XML other than RSS.

You can use it to organize and store simple data like configuration files for your application.

Code:

<screen>
  <width>1024</width>
  <height>768</heigth>
</screen>

Let's say you're creating a CMS or a Blog system and you have a plugin architecture that users can use to enhance the functionality of the product. You can define that plugins for your system must come with a info.xml file following this structure:

Code:

<plugin>
  <name>My Plugin</name>
  <author>John Doe</author>
  <description>This plugin is useless</description>
  <version>1.0</version>
  <releasedate>01/01/2008</releasedate>
</plugin>

This would make it a lot easier for you to extract info from each installed plugin.

XML is also used as a data interchange format. Take AJAX as an example, the X in AJAX stands for "XML" because the data is commonly returned in XML format. Sometimes you need to export data from some place to import it in another, in this case you can create an exporter that writes the data in XML format and then the importer that reads data from XML files.

Another use is for Web-RPC (Remote Procedure Calls), take a look here for an example, it shows how you can query a BOINC project for user information, the data is returned as XML.

I've listed some of the common uses of XML but there's really a lot more to it than it seems.

Isn't this method used by Facebook for Developers? :D XML is awesome!

DeMo · 02-29-2008, 10:14 PM

I never looked into the Facebook API but it probably uses XML too.
Google likes XML too, take a look at this example, it shows how you can use cURL and XML to automate blog postings in Blogger, in this case you send the data to them formatted in XML.

sketchMedia · 03-10-2008, 12:35 PM

XML is really a way of organising/storing data when it boils down to it, so the possibilities are up to your imagination i suppose.

Nor · 03-13-2008, 04:52 PM

I use it for my forum software :)

oscargodson · 06-02-2008, 07:46 AM

I am creating a full scale CMS tool by just using XML. The point of this is so that people I have a set up like this:

HTML Code:

<website>
   <webpage id="3"> <!-- For changing order on navigations -->
      <title>Title for the Page</title>
      <subhead>Sub head, but this is optional</subhead>
      <content>
         <p>This is the main content</p>
         <p>paragraphs are retained also</p>
      </content>
   </webpage>
</website>

The webpage tag gets created each time someone creates a page. I also use it for my personal site instead of a database. oscargodson.com/portfolio.xml and my web pages take all that information and parses it into an HTML document.

ETbyrne · 06-02-2008, 04:29 PM

That's a good idea oscargodson! But, please don't bump posts.

oscargodson · 06-02-2008, 05:36 PM

What do you mean bump? I just replied to it.

ETbyrne · 06-02-2008, 06:43 PM

When you reply to an older, dead, or resolved thread it is called a bump. And this thread happens to be a couple months old.

Jim · 06-05-2008, 02:21 PM

I also use XML in my desktop applications, a config file is easy made in it :)

Flash also workes like a charm with XML, my portfolio uses XML to load it's pages!

Orc · 06-05-2008, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oscargodson

I am creating a full scale CMS tool by just using XML. The point of this is so that people I have a set up like this:

HTML Code:

<website>
   <webpage id="3"> <!-- For changing order on navigations -->
      <title>Title for the Page</title>
      <subhead>Sub head, but this is optional</subhead>
      <content>
         <p>This is the main content</p>
         <p>paragraphs are retained also</p>
      </content>
   </webpage>
</website>

The webpage tag gets created each time someone creates a page. I also use it for my personal site instead of a database. oscargodson.com/portfolio.xml and my web pages take all that information and parses it into an HTML document.

Funny, I had the same idea about an XML Forum.