[Resolved] XML Scares me

Megahertza

As to what XML is, I don't know as of yet bc some of the definitions where some what hard to understand. There probaly a lot simpiler than I think.

What I want to know is
1 Is XML a replacement for HTML
2 Is it a good Idea to learn XML for future Web development
3 When Learning PHP, will I incounter XML

planetsim

Ok firstly to begin with there are so many topics like this every where on the web its amazingly not funny.

Try http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_whatis.asp

it answers all your questions.

jazz_snob

What I want to know is
1 Is XML a replacement for HTML

Yup, in fact XHTML is a subset of XML ( XHTML is just HTML that makes you close your tags properly and a few other things that you can read about at W3C ).

2 Is it a good Idea to learn XML for future Web development

Its already used for server-to-server communication ( eg: SOAP ). The short story is: in XML you decide what the tags mean:

<order id="1">
    <product>
        <name>Beer Goggles</name>
    </product>
    <product>
        <name>abrams tank</name>
    </product>
</order>

3 When Learning PHP, will I incounter XML

Definitely maybe. Tutorial here.

Megahertza

Thanks again planitsim, I decided to post what I found out about XML

XML Stands for Exstensive Markup Language, XML is not a replacement for HTML, It is mearly a method of discribing data where HTML is for formating and showing data.

<NOTE>
<HEADER>DOES NOTHING</HEADER>
<BODY>XML DOES NOTHING</BODY>
</NOTE>

Because these are XML tags in a web browser you will se nothing,
To have this code do something you have to have a program to get the data and do something with it.

Heres a joke

Q. When do you XML?
A. When you want a BUZZWORD in your resume

planetsim

Depending on what version of PHP you will be using and one on your host, you'll find simpleXML makes XML quite easly to play with.

jazz_snob

FWIW, you CAN display XML. Actually, I experimented w/ 'displaying' XML in a browser using XSL to transform it. Here are some files to show you how its done, although I suspect IE will suck at displaying it ( I'm using Firefox ).

--the xml file--

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="products.xsl"?>
<catalog>
	<product>
	  <name>BigEars</name>
	  <description>Easy to use ear training software</description>
	  <overview>
	    <blurb>
		<header>Easy to use</header>
		<text>
		BigEars is simple to use and simple to configure to make problems as easy or difficult as you want.
		</text>
		</blurb>
		<blurb>
		<header>Runs on Windows and Mac and Linux</header>
		<text>
		BigEars will run on most PCs and Macs running OS 10.2.3 or later!  The only requirement is a java runtime environment of 1.4 or greater.
		</text>
		</blurb>
	  </overview>		  

	  <sys_req>Java 1.4 or later</sys_req>
	  <price>19.95</price>
	</product>
	<product>
	  <name>ChordJammer</name>
	  <description>Practice chords in every key.
	  </description>
	  <overview>
	    <blurb>
		  <header></header>
		  <text>Easily practice patterns over chords with this simple program.  Select the chord quality you want.  Then select which root-cycle you want to use, such as P4ths.  Now press play!  Practice scales, arpeggios, patterns, singing, etc!  

		  </text>
		</blurb>
	    <blurb>
		  <header>Free with purchase of BigEars registration key!</header>
	    </blurb>
	  </overview>
	  <price>0.00</price>
	</product>

</catalog>

---- the XSL file that transforms the XML into XHTML, which is a subset of XML that browser agents understand, oh yeah and the XSL is XML----

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">

<html>
<body style="
   background-color: white;
   padding: 0;
   margin-left:5%;
   margin-top: 0;
   margin-right: 5%;
   margin-bottom: 0;
    border: solid;
   border-width: 1px;  

   border-color: #2200bb;">

<div id="content" style="margin : 0px 17% 0 19%;
						padding : 0;
						color : #000000;">

<xsl:for-each select="catalog/product">
	<center style="font-size: 4em; font-weight: bold; color=#0000dd">
		<xsl:value-of select="name" />
	</center>

<center style="font-size: 2em;">
<xsl:value-of select="description" /><br />
</center>

<xsl:for-each select="overview/blurb">
  <p><b><xsl:value-of select="header" /></b><br />
    <xsl:value-of select="text" /></p>
</xsl:for-each>

Price: $<xsl:value-of select="price" /> USD<br />
System Requirements: <xsl:value-of select="sys_req" /><br />

<br />
</xsl:for-each>

</div>

</body>
</html>

</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Put the files in the same directory and point your browser at the .xml file. It'll display on in the browser, nicely. Try to view source: you'll see xml.