Web Technologies - Old Questions

9.  How is XML defined? What are the benefits of using XML namespace?

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is  a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human readable and machine readable. XML is designed to store and transport data.

XML Namespace is a mechanism to avoid name conflicts by differentiating elements or attributes within an XML document that may have identical names, but different definitions.

Consider two XML fragment:

//1.xml

<table>

  <tr>

    <td>Apples</td>

    <td>Bananas</td>

  </tr>

</table>

//2.xml

<table>

  <name>African Coffee Table</name>

  <width>80</width>

  <length>120</length>

</table>

Name conflicts in XML can easily be avoided using a name prefix.

E.g.

<h:table>

  <h:tr>

    <h:td>Apples</h:td>

    <h:td>Bananas</h:td>

  </h:tr>

</h:table>

<f:table>

  <f:name>African Coffee Table</f:name>

  <f:width>80</f:width>

  <f:length>120</f:length>

</f:table>