Structuring information
- XML
- simple syntax
- easy automatic processing
- human readable
- key web technology
- "well formed" vs "validated" (DTD)
- XML Namespaces
- identified by URI
- sharing tag names among applications
- a relevant element in a fully decentralized architecture
(peer-to-peer)
- XML Schema Definition
- are in XML (no special syntax, no special editor,
validation is possible,...)
- element type hierarchies can be defined
- advanced datatypes; one can:
- define constraints on the data types (eg, an attribute shall
be a positive integer but smaller than 100)
- define hierarchies of data types (eg, a type is a subtype of
another one by restriction)
- define your own datatypes (eg, phone numbers should include
only numbers, first names only characters, zip codes follow
national patterns,...)
