2. What is XML and
what does it mean to
e-commerce?
3. David Turner, Product Manager, Microsoft
''The introduction of XML is in many ways
like the creation of writing in the evolution
of language. People had spoken language
for a long period before they got to the
point of inventing writing. But as soon as
they did, they were able to make huge steps
forward.''
4. “It's just a compromise everyone can
live with for structuring data.”
XML developer, David Megginson
5. What is XML?
• XML means “Extensible Markup
Language”
• extensible - not fixed format like HTML
• XML is a metalanguage - a language for
describing other languages
• Enables you to define your own customized
markup languages for different classes of
documents
6. What is XML? (cont.)
• Abbreviated version of SGML
• IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Sun all agree:
XML is the key to e-business
• XML enables business application sharing,
direct transactions and other business
applications.
7. What is SGML?
• SGML is the international standard for
defining descriptions of the structure and
content of different types of electronic
documents
• A universal language used to describe
thousands of different data types
8. What is HTML?
• HTML is HyperText Markup Language, a
specific application of SGML used on the
World Wide Web
• A simple, fixed type of document. Markup
designed for simple reports with provisions
for hypertext links and multimedia
9. What is XML? (cont.)
• XML: Heir apparent to electronic data
interchange (EDI) as primary means for
executing business transactions over the
internet
• If XML schemas became widely adapted,
data could be extracted from a multitude of
similar reports on the net
10. What is XML? (cont.)
• Report mining (searching for data in a
report, applying rules and triggering
actions) becomes practical
• Extensible Forms Definition Language
(XFDL)
– Designed for complex business forms over the
Internet
11. Why is XML used?
• Designed for ease-of-use with Standard
Generalized Markup Language (SGML)
• Goal is to enable SGML to be served,
received and processed beyond what is now
possible with HTML
12. Who is responsible for XML?
• XML is a project of the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C); development is
supervised by W3C’s XML Working Group
• Open-Sourced; formal W3C
recommendation since Feb. 1998
13. Why is XML important?
• Removes two constraints holding
back Web development:
(1) Dependence on a single, inflexible
document type - HTML
(2) The complexity of full SGML,
whose syntax allows many
powerful, but hard-to-program,
options
14. Why is XML important?(cont)
• HTML is at the limit of its usefulness as a
way of describing information
• HTML will continue to play an important
role for content
• Many new applications will require a more
robust and flexible infrastructure
15. Why is XML important?(cont)
• Information content can be richer and easier
to use because the hypertext linking
abilities of XML are greater than those of
HTML
• XML supports XLink, XPointer and XPath
• Enables location of remote resources,
anchors and targets, and complex
harmonies
16. XML vs. EDI
• Electronic Document Interchange (EDI) has
been used in e-commerce for many years
• EDI exchanges documents between
commercial partners regarding a transaction
• EDI requires special proprietary software,
but EDI data will soon travel inside XML
17. XML vs. EDI (cont)
• EDI failed to become the universal data
description language due to its high cost
and complexity, blocking small businesses
• EDI-to-XML and XML-to-EDI translation
is already taking place, ebXML group
taking the lead
18. What does XML mean
for e-commerce? (cont)
• Companies running different accounting
and business management applications will
exchange documents in a cross-system flow
• ebXML is mapping business processes to
facilitate XML to XML B2B
19. XML Organizations
• Over 250 XML industry efforts documented by
Robin Cover at OASIS.org
• XML.org, XML.com, RossettaNet.org
• UDDI: Facilities XML to XML exchanges
• XBRL: The Business Reporting Language
