XML Format
CategoryData Interchange Format
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) used for defining document markup. It has been designed for interoperability among web applications, data repositories and other software running on different platforms.
SOA Message Serialization
Arbitrary Data Structure Representation
XML represents markup — a programming language- and platform-independent system for annotating data in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from the text.
XML is widely used in a Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), where disparate systems communicate with each other by exchanging XML messages. The message exchange format is typically standardized by an XML Schema, and the transformation from one message format to another is often accomplished using XSLT stylesheets.
The XML specification defines an XML document as a well-formed text — meaning that it satisfies a list of syntax rules provided in the specification. An XML document is viewed as valid by an XML parser or validator when its elements and attributes are declared in the corresponding Document Type Definition (DTD) or XML schema.
Despite the popularity of simpler data formats, such as JSON or YAML, the majority of enterprise systems continue to use XML for message exchange.
