Introduction to XML

Purpose:

This exercise is intended to give you experience the basic ideas of the extensible markup language, XML. In our previous exercises, we built our own persistence format. This format was useful, and allowed our registers to be recreated between sessions. However, without examining our program, it would be difficult to divine what each field means in our file format—what legal values are for some fields, and how to write new programs that can assess or enhance our application's utility.

Using XML, we should be able to overcome most—if not all—of these limitations, and prepare our application for a simple web deployment..

What to hand in:

Hand in an XML file that represents your register, formatted in an organized, easy-to-understand manner.

In a paragraph (which should be in a comment in your XML file), describe the rationale for the format you selected, and any advantages it has over your previous format.

Please capture your homework in a single file for submission, in an easily reviewable order.

Problems:

Register Exemelization

Represent the same information that is in your persistent register in an XML file.

The XML file must be well-formed, and possible to validate (though you do not need to provide an XML schema or DTD).

[Do you like the new word I coined above?]

Notes:

Introductory information on XML can be found in our Resources tab.

I recommend discussion of this item with others, if possible. Any good ideas you come up with will be incorporated into an XML schema provided for next week's exercise.

Evaluation criteria: