XML
Filed under Programming, Software
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a standard way of storing data. It became a W3C recommendation in 1998.
If you aren't on the XML bandwagon yet, you should be. XML is a good thing and it makes software better.
XML is confusing at first, but it is worth the time spent understanding it.
I found a great resource that explains XML concisely, quickly and with many examples.
Here is the section I read to understand the XML format (.xml files).
After that, I read this section about how to "design" an XML file format using XML schema (.xsd files).
In less than a day, I have learned a lot about XML. I highly recommend the above two links to anybody doing software development.
The next issue is how to author XML.
Visual Studio 2005 comes with really good XML tools. Here's more info on what Visual Studio can do with XML.
I use Visual Studio 2005, but some of the people using the software I'm writing may not. I needed a free XML editor for these people.
I looked around and tried out several free XML editors. Many of them did not support .xsd files (which ensure the XML data is in the format you expect).
I found out that Microsoft's *free* version of Visual Studio *does* include the XML tools! These tools are great for creating XML schema, authoring XML, among other things. I'm going to recommend anybody that needs to edit/author XML use Visual Studio C# Express Edition or Visual Studio C++ Express Edition if they don't already have Visual Studio.
XML
XSD
XML Schema
Comments (2)
Here's a good, free XML editor http://architag.com/xray/
We use it in class.
Posted by Dorina | March 1, 2008 6:11 PM
Posted on March 1, 2008 18:11
Thanks for the tip, Dorina.
I just tried Xray out. Xray is a free xml editor and it does do xml schema files.
I still like Visual Studio better. For a few reasons...
When you have an invalid XML syntax, VS underlines the problem area with a red squiggle (like a misspelled word), which makes it really easy to find the problem.
When your xml file differs from the schema file, VS underlines the issue with a blue squiggle.
When you start a tag, VS automatically generates the closing tag.
VS will give you tag and data suggestions based on your schema file.
I use the VS editor all day, so I'm used to all the keyboard shortcuts.
I'll keep Xray in mind, thanks for the suggestion!
Posted by David | March 1, 2008 11:07 PM
Posted on March 1, 2008 23:07