Learning XML

Unit 7 was the first time I was formally introduced to XML. I realize that I have seen XML coding before, when looking at many web document sources, but I never distinguished it as a different code from HTML.

I followed along both tutorials recommended by Professor Fulton– the one from w3school and Mark Longs’ tutorials in UA CBT. The tutorials were clear and writing the basic code looked easy. Ha! When I tried to write an XML document I kept getting an error message. Apparently I didn’t pay strict attention to writing attributes.

So knowing that different sources can say the same thing, but resonate a different way, I Googled “XML” to get some explanations on my errors from alternative sources. I came across the w3.org site, which was useful; and xml.com which states that their overview was outdated before it was even published on the web.

I had enclosed my attribute within greater than and lesser than symbols, made sure the attribute was in quotation marks, and that the tag was closed:

This is an error, and Internet Explorer would not display the document.

I finally figured out that the attribute is part of the element and that the closure tag closes the element and attribute: April 20, 2010

I am not at an advanced stage. I have much to learn.