What Is XML? A Complete Guide With References

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a widely adopted standard created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1998. It is designed to store and transport structured data across different systems, regardless of platform or programming language. XML has become a foundational technology for applications that rely on data interchange, such as web services (e.g., SOAP), RSS feeds, and configuration settings.

An XML document consists of elements enclosed in tags. Here’s an example:

While XML offers more flexibility and features (like attributes, schemas, and namespaces), JSON has become more popular for web APIs due to its lighter weight and easier integration with JavaScript.