The Howdy Glossary

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a software- and hardware-independent tool for storing and transporting data. It is similar to HTML, but XML was designed to carry data, not to display it. XML tags are not predefined like HTML tags; they are user-defined. This allows for a high degree of flexibility in application development and integration by making it easier to combine different systems or processes without extensive modification. The structure of an XML document forces the author then the creator of the webpage to create adaptable structures according its needs as well as those requirements from applications that consume or produce such documents.