XML (Extensible Markup Language) allows users to define their own customized markup languages to structure data. It was created as a simplified version of SGML to make it usable on the web. XML is important because it removes constraints of HTML and allows for richer content than HTML alone. XML will enable easier exchange of data between businesses and applications.

1. XML

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