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whitepaper: What is XML and does it matter?

by Simon John, Director, Verum-i Limited

synopsis
XML - eXtensible Markup Language was conceived and developed by the W3C, the same organisation that started the World Wide Web. Over the last three years XML has enjoyed exponential growth and is now seen in most organisations around the world. This growth has been fuelled by software and hardware vendors adopting the standards within their products. Don't be fooled, XML is not just for "geeks", at its heart, XML is revoloutionising the way business is run. It's adoption can significantly improve a company's profitability through better communication and lower costs of doing business.

introduction
If you've heard of XML - great! - if not please don't think this is not for me and stop reading just yet, as a senior manager or manager, you have probably been exposed to the technology already - if you haven't you will be in the future. This paper provides a very high overview of XML, a more detailed technical and business view of XML will be provided in later papers. This paper is aimed at all senior executives, business managers and project managers wishing to gain a concise view of XML, its effects on their business and its uses in the real world.

what is XML?
Basically, XML is a much better way of organising content on the Internet. Before XML, the web was built of another markup language -HTML. This provides static documents (like books on a shelf) to be retrieved and viewed in a browser. XML goes further than HTML. Imagine standing in front of the same set of books on a shelf and indicating through a set of parameters the information you require. This is then dynamically presented to you. The information you may look for could be subjects covered by your favourite author or executive summaries on the topic of XML from a number of books. Whatever information you we looking for, you would be able to make better decisions and be better informed than looking through static pages.

To further explain what XML is, I would for a short moment turn a little technical and look at the differences between XML and HTML.

in HTML:

<p>verum-i
<br>Simon John
<br>strategic XML planning

in XML:

<company name>verum-i</company name>
<name>Simon John</name>
<solution>strategic XML planning</solution>

XML and HTML use markup, indicated by <>, called tags and are presented in a browser. This is about where the similarity ends. XML (and HTML) are actually related to SGML - Standard Generalised Markup Language, with XML being a watered down version. SGML is a very complex markup language and XML was developed to be easier to use but still retaining the power. Furthermore, XML is not technically speaking a markup language, it provides the syntax which allows you to generate your own markup language.

You can see from the code examples above that XML uses human readable tags which give specific information regarding he data found between them. HTML will tell you how the data will look but XML is more intelligent, telling you what the data really means, e.g. <company name>verum-i</company name>. Essentially, XML is built on metadata - data which describes data.

This metadata can describe for example a purchase order document at company X. Send this document to company Y and as long as it understands the structure of the document, you are now doing business together.

why be interested in XML?
The Internet and world wide web have come along way but limitations have become apparent very quickly. Business and consumers now require more out of the web and XML can help them achieve their desires. The benefits of XML can be shown by the following needs:

data integration - B2B
Traditionally, companies have and are communicated via value added networks and technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange - EDI. The set up of these networks is high, support costs are high and flexibility to change is low. XML is changing all of that.

Business to business models are changing the face of commerce and XML is the catalyst allowing it to happen apace. Diverse applications now communicate allowing the real time flow of data from one company back end system to another. XML provides flexibility, scalability, cheap cost, high support and speed to market.

legacy data integration - sharing knowledge
Companies today have high volumes of disjointed data in databases. XML is being used to refine data requirements and bring the data together from either inter corporate or intra corporate repositories, to identify and analyse corporate wide issues in more detail than ever before.

content as you want it
HTML pages are static. With XML your retrieved data can be presented as you want it. Maybe you want information from a certain time frame, viewed in a certain font or ready for easy print, or view on a mobile phone or PDA screen. This can be achieved on the fly (explained in future whitepapers). With HTML, you would have to use different pages (slower and more storage space).

pin point search
We have already discussed the fact that XML is a better way of organising data electronically. Since each piece of data is defined, searching becomes very accurate. Think of this scenario; search on the web for articles relating to "Michael Crichton biography" and you will get the official Michael Crichton home page, unofficial home pages, book reviews, news articles, article in German, Dutch etc., family tree information on Michael Crichton from Alabama - you get the picture, a typical web search! Structured information with meaningful metadata would make searching effective and fast, not only on the Internet but within your company's knowledge base systems. Imagine searching for Michael Crichton biography and the being presented with the exact information you require and nothing else.

 

XML advantages
We have seen the potential uses of XML within the enterprise. Here are some other reasons why XML is becoming the standard of choice:

• Flexible and easily scalable.
• Support of all popular browsers
• Cheap to implement
• Widely supported by software vendors
• Is built for the Internet
• Is built for use with popular powerful programing languages such as Java, visual basic, perl etc
• Many tools now available for editing, modeling etc
• Platform independence.

  
  

  XML issues
  XML is not the silver bullet that will instantly solve all of your problems - just yet! Some fundamental issues still remain. The key area revolves around standards.

• XML is built on standards, how documents link together, how they are to be presented etc. Although many standards have been worked through, some still remain open to interpretation.
• Software vendors have been quick to incorporate XML standards within their products. This is great when this means the software will generally process XML, however, some vendors have created products which work with certain vocabularies of XML. For example, new business to business XML vocabularies have emerged requiring a layer to be built between them to allow end to end communication.
  
  

  Summary
  Since its birth several years ago, XML has enjoyed exponential growth, becoming a key part of business and the web in general. The benefits of XML are apparent and it will continue to be the standard of choice, being built into new emerging technologies. Fast development time and flexibility make it an ideal candidate for the Internet economy. So to answer the question posed by the title of this article, does XML matter? - yes, it will be a fundamental component to how data is transferred between companies and their customers. However, some storm clouds still remain regarding how standards are produced to the benefit of all. If vendors and industries alike are not careful, XML can create more problems than it solves.

  Simon John
  Director
  Verum-i Limited
  simon@verum-i.co.nz
  http://www.verum-i.co.nz
  

   

  Copyright © Simon John - Verum-i Limited 2002. Copying in whole or in part of this document is prohibited without the prior written permission of Verum-i Limited.