Topic: XML: where does the fun come in?

ok, did the tute at devshed and i know everything about writing xml. but what do i get by this? what do i need that for? and dont tell me someting like describe your data, handle your content,...

since it is listed there under server-side, i thought that i must have a server which supports it?

ok, i figured it out, you gotta add:
<xml src="weee.xml" id="myxml" async="false"></xml>
to your html.

then you can access it with:
datasrc="#myxml"
datafld="TITLE"

but why should i prefer xml over a database? with xml-data you always have to edit the whole file when there are changes.

GRUMBLE: Well its client side as well as server side so you can just open the XML file in IE.

Why learn XML? Well I suppose it depends on what you are going to use it for (rather circular I'm sorry). Its a good idea to leanr XML now as it doesn't take long and you have the knowledge to hand when need it.

Interested in Flash? Then search at Google for Flash and XMLSocket.

Its a means to an end and has a large number of uses - if you want devices talking to each other than it can act as the medium for this communication:
www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/WDDXandPHP

I could have an XML document and allow a number of people access (pos. using a number of different server side languages) and they could all grab the information and parse it as they wanted. It was one of the suggestions put forward for a combined Asylum/Gurus FAQ and I presented a possible structure here:
www.gurusnetwork.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=9&t=000250

I'm not sure I made a good job of explaining that - I'll try again when I've had some better ideas.

Emps


Beware the foreparts of a woman, the hindparts of a mule, and all sides of a priest - English proverb

How much simpler would the world be it we all spoke and wrote the exact same language? How simple would your overseas trips be if the whole world used the exact same currency and electrical sockets?

Sounds wonderful doesn't it.

Sounds like what XML is ~supposed~ to do with the way electronic mediums communicate and interact. Hopefull one day it will be like that but it will take some time. That's not to say XML it's already being used however. There are server side XML phrasers and transformers. Which means the client accessing the server (be it a web browser, mobile phone or your fridge) will be able to access the data.

There are also many companies using XML to markup data for their applications using their own XML phrasers to interpret the data. One for example it the new game by Red Storm Entertainment, Ghost Recon. It's a 3D shooter game however all of the game options and stats are marked up in XML. This includes all of your performance options ect ect.. One day we may be able to go online to get support for a game and not have to tell tech support our computer/driver specs and exact game configuration. Now wouldn't that be nice.

I've really only looked into PHP's XML capabilities and well... I was rather un-impressed with what I found. You can phrase XML with PHP but not very well. As far as I know there currently isn't any XSLT functions in PHP.

I have however heard many good things about ASP's XML abilites. Although I don't have any access to ASP enabled servers and I'm too lazy to set up IIS & ASP on my home PC so I haven't looked into it yet.

Anyway, I hope it helped.

[This message has been edited by Dracusis (edited 02-03-2002).]

Ahem... PHP has bad support for XML/XSLT??? That's not true:

• http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.xml.php
• http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.xslt.php
• http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.domxml.php
• http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.xmlrpc.php

Well... Would you look at that. Heh. Time to eat my words I guess.

I did know about some of those but I must have made the silly mistake of reading through them in the offline manual and most of them were still experimental. I'm not a seasoned code worrior by any means so the word experimental to scare me a lot. Furthermore, Adding modules to PHP presents a huge pain for me and my web host. I could set up PHP with theise modules localy but it doesn't help me much If I can't put them to use online.

Thanks a heap for correcting me though. It possible would have taken me a while realise. I started looking into XML anout 7 months ago but didn't too heavily into it because I could find that much about PHP & XML. I've read the odd book or two about it but haven't put much of it to pactice with server side stuff yet.