A Lehmann's Perspective
Hi there! I'm Darryl Lehmann an Information Technology professional working with Computer Composition of Canada Inc. My focus is developing new tools and systems for multi-channel publishing. Having worked with many of the major web-based technologies, I understand the challenges of modifying one's work practices to utilize new technologies. I will be writing blogs offering my perspective on some of the publishing tools that are in use, examine the tools and systems that are new and shiny, and provide real life scenarios for how it all comes together.
To begin, we are going to delve into XML: what is it, why is it, and what do we use it for?
What is it?
The acronym XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. The heart of this is the word "extensible"; in this case referring to the fact that we the authors create or extend our own set of "mark-up" or tags to define our data.
Quite simply, XML is a storage tank for data. What lies underneath and how its implemented is perhaps the mystery or should I say mystique surrounding XML. While XML is a simple concept its implementation is fairly abstract, being that you the author describe your data's containership. This leaves people wondering, so why XML?
Let's have a look...
Single source, multiple outputs
The primary benefit that XML provides us in publishing is versatility, not only in creation but also in producing output from it. Continuing with our example, we can use this data to print labels, or to generate this week's flyer, or we could extend the data model to track inventory and use it to drive an automated restocking program. Single source, multiple outputs, this is one of the main business drivers behind the adoption of XML!
Businesses cannot afford to store essentially the same data in multiple locations in order to produce different outputs. Nowadays our data needs to be adaptable as our business’s environments evolve.
Bringing it together
What we've been examining here is the crux of what makes XML so special. XML gives us a human and machine interpretable interface to our data. It provides us with seemingly limitless possibilities for data re-use.
As a language it's completely free, and boasts wide-scale adoption from software industry leaders. XML and its related technologies are W3C standards. These standards will evolve over time but you can be assured that there will be clearly defined evolutionary paths and strategies and your investment in XML will be safe guarded.
Until next time,
Darryl
Programmer and Developer