XML

Overview

XML stores hierarchical data and documents with custom tags, namespaces, and schema validation. It remains important in publishing, SOAP services, and configuration despite being more verbose than JSON.

Typical use cases

• Documents with structure
• SOAP and legacy systems
• Configuration
• Metadata interchange

Advantages

• Designed for documents with structure
• None storage
• Open standard specification
• Browser support: Parsed by browsers and many platforms

Disadvantages

• Verbose
• Namespace complexity
• Slower parsing than JSON for large data

How to open or use it

Open XML files with an application that supports application/xml. Editable in any text editor with schema tooling. For delivery, use a viewer or converter that reads xml.