XML Key Benefits

Separates Data from HTML: To display dynamic data in HTML document, one needs to perform lot of work to edit the HTML each time the data changes while with XML, data can be stored in separate XML files. By a few lines of JavaScript, we can read an external XML file and update the data content of our HTML.


Simplifies Data Sharing: In the real world, computer systems and databases store data in incompatible formats whereas XML data is stored in plain text format. This provides a software- and hardware-independent way of storing data and makes it much easier to create data which different applications can share.


Simplifies Data Transport: By means of XML, data can be conveniently exchanged between incompatible systems. One of the most time-consuming challenges for developers is to exchange data between incompatible systems over the Internet. Exchanging data as XML reduces this intricacy to a great extent, since the data can be read by different incompatible applications.


Simplifies Platform Changes: Upgrading to new platforms (either hardware or software), is always very time consuming since large amount of data needs to be converted and incompatible data is frequently lost. However, XML data is stored in text format which makes it easier to expand or upgrade to new operating systems, new applications, or new browsers, without losing any data.


Makes our Data More Available: Since XML is independent of hardware, software and application, it can make our data more available and useful. Diverse applications can access our data, not only in HTML pages, but also from XML data sources. Via XML, our data can be available to all kinds of reading machines like Handheld computers, voice machines, news feeds, etc, and make it more available for blind people, or people with other disabilities.


Used to Create New Internet Languages: Many new Internet languages are created with XML. Some of the examples are given below:

• XHTML the latest version of HTML
  
• WSDL for describing available web services
  
• WAP and WML as markup languages for handheld devices
  
• RSS languages for news feeds
  
• RDF and OWL for describing resources and ontology
  
• SMIL for describing multimedia for the web