Why XML is the Most Robust Data Exchange Format?

The Extensible Markup Language simply referred to as XML is widely known for its versatility and is a widely used data exchange format that has become an important feature of data interchange in many industries today. Its robustness, flexibility, and platform-independent nature make it an ideal choice not just for Windows application development but also for web services, document storage, and more.

In this video from the Coding Bootcamp 2023, we will dive deeper into XML, particularly Delphi’s XML-oriented features, and how to utilize them to their maximum potential.  Miguel Angel Moreno will help us understand XML better and why this data exchange format is considered the most robust of them all.

What Should You Know About XML?

Generally, XML is a software and hardware-independent tool for storing and transporting data. It is platform-independent which means that it can be used across different operating systems and programming languages without modification. While most REST services are now driven by JSON (another data exchange format), XML, despite its complexity is equally useful and effective.

XML is also a markup language like HTML. However, both languages are designed with different goals. For instance, HTML was designed to display the data while XML is merely designed to carry the data.

How Delphi Helps You Process XML Documents

Interestingly, Delphi offers comprehensive support for processing XML documents through its built-in components, libraries, and tools. Delphi comes with XML libraries including components like TXMLDocument. There are so popular open-source libraries like Oxml, Open XML, and Neslib.Xml. The video will also highlight popular Delphi frameworks including the XML Data Binding and the XML Mapper that both help you process XML in a specific manner.

In this video, Miguel will walk us through delphi’s XML Document model and will demonstrate how this component works. The video also concludes with a Q&A portion with Miguel Moreno and Embarcadero Developer Advocate Ian Barker.

To learn more about XML and Delphi, feel free to watch the video below.