Page 116 - Electronic Commerce

Technology Infrastructure: The Internet and the World Wide Web

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<CountriesList>
91
- <Country Name="Argentina">
<CapitalCity>Buenos Aires</CapitalCity>
<AreaInSquareKilometers>2,766,890</AreaInSquareKilometers>
<OfficialLanguage>Spanish</OfficialLanguage>
<VotingAge>18</VotingAge>
</Country>
- <Country Name="Austria">
<CapitalCity>Vienna</CapitalCity>
<AreaInSquareKilometers>83,858</AreaInSquareKilometers>
<OfficialLanguage>German</OfficialLanguage>
<VotingAge>19</VotingAge>
</Country>
- <Country Name="Barbados">
<CapitalCity>Bridgetown</CapitalCity>
<AreaInSquareKilometers>430</AreaInSquareKilometers>
<OfficialLanguage>English</OfficialLanguage>
<VotingAge>18</VotingAge>
Learning
</Country>
- <Country Name="Belarus">
<CapitalCity>Minsk</CapitalCity>
Cengage
<AreaInSquareKilometers>207,600</AreaInSquareKilometers>
<OfficialLanguage>Byelorussian</OfficialLanguage>
2015
<VotingAge>18</VotingAge>
</Country>
©
</CountriesList>
FIGURE 2-13 Country list data marked up with XML tags as it would appear in Internet Explorer
The first line in the XML file shown in Figures 2-12 and 2-13 is the declaration, which
indicates that the file uses version 1.0 of XML. XML markup tags are similar in
appearance to SGML markup tags, thus the declaration can help avoid confusion in
organizations that use both. The second line and the last line are the root element tags.
The root element of an XML file contains all of the other elements in that file and is
usually assigned a name that describes the purpose or meaning of the file.
The other elements are called child elements; for example, Country is a child element of
CountriesList. Each of the other attributes is, in turn, a child element of the Country element.
Unlike an HTML file, when an XML file is displayed in a browser, the tags are visible. The
names of these child elements were created specifically for use in this file. If programmers in
another organization were to create a file with country information, they might use different
names for these elements (for example, “Capital” instead of “CapitalCity”), which would make
it difficult for the two organizations to share information. Thus, the greatest strength of XML,
that it allows users to define their own tags, is also its greatest weakness.
To overcome that weakness, many companies have agreed to follow common
standards for XML tags. These standards, in the form of data-type definitions (DTDs) or
XML schemas, are available for a number of industries, including LegalXML for
information in the legal profession, MathML for mathematical and scientific information,
and Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) for accounting and financial
information standards. XBRL is probably one of the most widely used XML schemas in the
world. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and similar agencies in other
countries have begun requiring publicly traded companies to submit their annual financial

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