3/40 - XML in Web Development

XML for Data Handling

In the previous post, we learned about the XML Tree and how the computer processes the data as elements. I want to break this down for anyone unfamiliar with other coding languages. XML—by itself—offers no useful potential; However, with proper data structure, integrating JavaScript to update the web browser dynamically can make the organization of larger applications seamless. This also enables the Web Developer to store information about the user through Session Variables and Cookies. We will learn about updating XMLHttpRequest to the server in the next Post.

For the front-end folks, integrating JavaScript functions into this button allows the content to be dynamically updated without leaving the page. The benefit to this is faster load speed as we haven't called the data yet. It could be sitting on another page protected, by security measures, that we communicate with via the button.

Example of HTML/XML with Java Integration

The following button illustrates the ability to store and present the snippet of XML created in the previous post. On click the button utilizes JavaScript functions to parse/present the car data. This can be extremely valuable for organizing content on a webpage without having to refresh or load another page.

If you are unfamiliar with the abilities of JavaScript, you can view the reference guide on W3Schools. We will learn about XML built-in data Parser in the next Post; However, I want to emphasize the need to understand JavaScript before moving forward, as this is where the magic lies.