XML is a markup language to describe data. The XML syntax is similar to HTML, though is it extensible and can be expanded and defined by the document author. Unlike HTML, XML code adheres to strict rules that are laid out in the document definition. The widespread adoption of XML has been one of the most significant advances in application development in the past ten years with implications for interface design, data exchange, and emerging application development paradigms.

PHP and SimpleXML

February 17, 2008

PHP, the open-source scripting language, has an excellent extension for handling xml files in PHP version 5. SimpleXML saves programming time by loading XML files into an intuitive object oriented structure that leverages OOP by creating parent-child relationships between nested XML tags as well as using XML attributes as PHP object attributes. Saving new data is as simple as calling the built in asXML() method.

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