XML is a standard for a stractured document, such as:
Code:
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
We use it just as a standard for transfering data, confortably, in such a way that any program that can read a text file can get the Data.
Why do we use it? Because as I said- it is simply a text file, so every program can read it, but it's content is layed out in a stracture which is standardized so we always know how to read this text file and use it's contents. In this way we can get two programs on different infrastructures and in different languages to transfer data easily.
From W3C:
* XML stands for EXtensible Markup Language
* XML is a markup language much like HTML
* XML was designed to describe data
* XML tags are not predefined. You must define your own tags
* XML uses a Document Type Definition (DTD) or an XML Schema to describe the data
* XML with a DTD or XML Schema is designed to be self-descriptive
* XML is a W3C Recommendation
XML does not DO anything
XML was not designed to DO anything.
Here- learn XML, its very simple to use and understand.
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_whatis.asp