how do I create websites in xml

[ScriptMonkey]

Can somebody out there explain how xml benefits the internet, and how do I start to use it. Im a novice with computers and I only really know how to code HTML, but I wanna get a handle on xml as well. I undersatnd that html is very similar to xml, except that in xml you can create custom tags/elements etc, so ok, what i did was save some html code in a new file and save it as an xml file, it was well formed, so the file opened ok in IE, it looked like html but with + and - to open and close certain sections. Where do I go from here, how do I begin to create websites in xml?

I understand that when custom elements are created they have to be defined in the DTD/schema so that they can be understood.

can somenody explain to me in idiot terminology exactly how xml works, what you can do with it etc, what I have to learn.

many thanks

 

[scotth4v]

http://www.w3schools.com

has a really good intro tutorial on XML/XSL, you should spend an hour or so going through it. Simply using XML to display data isn't really of much benefit when HTML is so widespread and well supported. Where it shines is the organization and displaying of data sets. It gives you a lot more flexibilty and control over the display of the data. XSL is what gives you the formatting control to make your XML look like HTML output as well as filter/organize what portions of your XML you want to display. A basic understanding of programming structures and some familiarity with CSS will help greatly in picking up XSL, but other than that, it's pretty straightforward.

Have fun with it!

-Scott

 

[jasonsalas]

I'm an ASP dev who picked up XML about a year ago...but I've only started to really get into it over the last 6 months. Many facets of my site use XML documents, rendered with ASP scripts (in VBScript/JScript).

Here's an example:

http://www.kuam.com/marketingprograms/todaysheadlines.asp

...is actually this file:

http://www.kuam.com/marketingprograms/KUAMheadlines.xml

...rendered by an ASP script and formatted with this XSL document:

http://www.kuam.com/marketingprograms/dailyheadlines.xsl

I use it because my reporters can now enter their stories in any order, and the XSL document is "smart" enough to know which article goes where, based on the categorization of the data. It even sorts the articles by date, so everything is timely.

I even got bored one afternoon last wek and designed a prototype version of our site which runs totally off of XML documents, instead of the database solution I"m curtrently using. It's fine, and works great (and even saves us a little time)...but the thing I ALWAYS ask myself when doign XML is ...."is this really necessary? Can I just do the same thing with HTML?" It's a toss-up for the individual developer. I operate in a small TV news station in a small market (Guam), so we don't have the concerns a large-scale enterprise would about sharing information and making it completely interoperable.

I use XML's universality to take core data (our articles), and publish them to (1) our public Web site, (2) our WAP site for mobile customers, and (3) our channel push.

My big thing is this: in opposition to database-driven sites, XML doesn't come cluttered with the enormity of a large relation DB, or the other overhead concerns. Yet, because XML documents are just that - standalone data documents...they're not relational like a DB, and changes I implement in 2,700 records that get automatically changed throughout my DB would have to nbe painstakingly (the DB concept of preserving "referential integrity" in your datatstore).

Also, XML security isn't completely proven (yet)...but that's not such a ig concern of mine...since we're putting up textual articles. E-commerce site managers, however, would have a much larger headache about this....in exposing things like credit card #'s, customer contact info, etc.

Hope this helps!