XML

XML (standard)
Extensible Markup Language
AbbreviationXML
StatusPublished, W3C recommendation
Year started1996 (1996)
First publishedFebruary 10, 1998 (1998-02-10)
Latest version1.1 (2nd ed.)
September 29, 2006 (2006-09-29)
OrganizationWorld Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
EditorsTim Bray, Jean Paoli, Michael Sperberg-McQueen, Eve Maler, François Yergeau, John W. Cowan
Base standardsSGML
Related standardsW3C XML Schema
DomainSerialization
Websitewww.w3.org/xml
XML (file format)
Filename extension
.xml
Internet media typeapplication/xml, text/xml[1]
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)public.xml
UTI conformationpublic.text
Magic number<?xml
Developed byWorld Wide Web Consortium
Type of formatMarkup language
Extended fromSGML
Extended toNumerous languages, including XHTML, RSS, Atom, and KML
Standard
Open format?Yes
Free format?Yes

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. The World Wide Web Consortium's XML 1.0 Specification[2] of 1998[3] and several other related specifications[4]—all of them free open standards—define XML.[5]

The design goals of XML emphasize simplicity, generality, and usability across the Internet.[6] It is a textual data format with strong support via Unicode for different human languages. Although the design of XML focuses on documents, the language is widely used for the representation of arbitrary data structures[7] such as those used in web services.

Several schema systems exist to aid in the definition of XML-based languages, while programmers have developed many application programming interfaces (APIs) to aid the processing of XML data.

  1. ^ "XML Media Types, RFC 7303". Internet Engineering Task Force. July 2014.
  2. ^ "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition)". World Wide Web Consortium. 26 November 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
  3. ^ "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0". W3C. 10 February 1998.
  4. ^ "XML and Semantic Web W3C Standards Timeline" (PDF). Database and Knowledge Systems Lab. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 April 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
  5. ^ "Document license - 2015 version". W3C. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  6. ^ "1.0 Origin and Goals". Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition). W3C. 26 November 2008. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
  7. ^ Fennell, Philip (June 2013). "Extremes of XML". XML London 2013: 80–86. doi:10.14337/XMLLondon13.Fennell01 (inactive 2024-02-27). ISBN 978-0-9926471-0-0. Archived from the original on Mar 1, 2023.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2024 (link)