Xml - Why?

[Cinquecento]

Now I like to think I'm of moderate intelligence (!) - I've already learnt (and forgotten) ASP, lingo (director), actionscript and Drumbeat (precursor to UltraDev) and have now got a failry good handle (well - good enough to be useful) on PHP, MySQL and Linux.

I've been reading a lot of heartfelt and ernest articles about XML. , I own applications developed to talk XML, have bought books about XML..... but....I still can't see it!

I'm just starting to develop a new site - have set up all the tables in MySQL, have started scripting the PHP and yet feel this 'pressure' to use XML, because without it I'm not doing the job properly, but for all my research can't see why I should!

Have any of you guys and gals seen a fundamental guide (or can just tell me) what is so great about using XML to add another layer of complexity when I can already get the job done using what I already know?

I really want to do the best for my clients and see so much 'blah blah blah' about XML that I feel pretty dumb missing out on the big secret!

Ian

[IceD]

Common problem - I've such 😉 Form my point of view XML don't have any advantages. But for sutisfy my customers, I've used XML+XSL for generating HTML - (PHP script generates XML and XSL, then merges them). Blah 🙁 Anouther way is to use XHTML.

[superwormy]

XML is only helpful in certain situations, it all depends on what you're using it for and why.

XMLs advantages are that its a standard. So that ANYONE who can parse XML can use that data, where-as a database like MySQL it'd be a pain to do that. For instance, say I'm CNN and want to allow people to stream news headlines off my website. If I was using a database then anyone who wanted to stream those headlines, woudl first have to have knowledge of my database. Then I'd need to allow themt o connect to my database, which brings up security concerns, and they'd have to have some knowledge of what to do with the data I give them, what the fieldnames are, what part of the message is in which fields, etc. Not to mention what if they arn't farmilair with the database format I'm using? What if I'm using Oracle and they are using MySQL, and their scripting language doesnt have Oracle support?

But with XML, all I'm doing is outputting strait text. So ANYONE can use it. And theres no security issue cause its just like downloading a webpage off the internet, strait simple HTTP GET resquest. And its self-documenting, when I see the tags <headline_date>2002-10-17</headline_date> I know right away what that is, no need to worry about funky field names or anytyhig, no need to worry bout compatitibliy.

That's where I see XML being useful.