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Danny Tam
Registered Users
Nuke Master
Posts:242
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| 12/25/2006 9:36 AM |
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First, sorry if this sounds a bit left field for a DotNetNuke question.. I just think Ventrian is a great place to converse, and what a good place to ask this question.
I've been delving pretty intensively into PHP as of late, and is just getting into using it with interacting with databases. The ultimate goal is to build a custom CMS for a site..
Question I really had was what does XML exactly do? I've heard great things in how this can get a database from one site interacting with other sites, and what not, and I'm a bit perplexed as to exactly what that means..
If anybody can give a dummy response to break down what is the potential of XML and how it can help my database it would be great. I will be building a site with a database loaded with resourceful information about products, and would love for future applications and other websites to be able to pull that data and use it.
Would this be what I would need XML for?
Cheers,
Danny
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Scott McCulloch
Administrators
Nuke Master
Posts:12820
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| 12/26/2006 3:04 AM |
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| XML is just a file type for transporting any type of data, because it's a file it is very easy to share with other sites and through the use of XSL (xml stylesheet) you can format it to html. |
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Scott McCulloch
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Danny Tam
Registered Users
Nuke Master
Posts:242
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| 12/26/2006 7:08 AM |
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| Can it be assumed I can share my database through XML so other sites can retrieve my data? |
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Scott McCulloch
Administrators
Nuke Master
Posts:12820
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| 12/26/2006 2:30 PM |
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You can share sections of data, e.g. RSS is really sharing news information with other sites.
You wouldn't however, give another site access to all the tables that control news, just the information they need in a standard xml format. |
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Scott McCulloch
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Cliff Simpkins
Registered Users
Nuke Addict
Posts:71
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| 12/26/2006 10:30 PM |
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As Scott said, XML is just a file type. It's not so much as using XML to share your database, but to share the functionality that uses the data in your database. It's all about reach extension.
RSS feeds can also share more than just data. For example, 'RSS lists' can surface search results (per the Open Search / A9 Search spec), and I've been looking at using it to trade information between calendars done in DNN and in PHP.
Another place where XML can really come into play for websites is use in XML Web Services (something that I wish DNN had some more capabilities to it for consumption and exposure via web services), using SOAP to make calls between business layers on other web and middle tier servers. Also, XML is the basis of a lot of standards that are XML-based, but not quite pure XML - like use in some BEPL standards and the XAML (XML Application Markup Language) files used by WinWF and WPF (Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Presentation Foundation, respectively). |
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