There are many advantages of using XML, therefore it is widely used in modern day information technology; it has a wide range of uses in various segments of the industry.
1. Platform Independent – XML is 100% consistent with technologies like Java, also it can be used in conjunction with any application which is capable of processing XML irrespective of the platform it is being used on.
2. Extensile – XML does not have a fixed set of tags, users may create tags as per their requirements, and an XML tag can possess an unlimited number of attributes again created as per requirements. Tags, mark-ups and content layout provide the entire required background information hence making searching using search engines easy and effective, also allowing intelligent data mining etc.
3. Portable – XML documents can be easily relayed over internet, intranet or physically from one drive to another, just like other text documents.
4. Free-Standing – XML are text based documents that can be stored without external structure as they are self-descriptive, meaning XML documents contain data as well as structure of that data aka metadata. Thus, they do not require another environment or application, they can sustain independently and when needed can be used in conjunction with any other application.
5. Multi-datatype support – XML documents may contain data ranging from simple text, numbers, alpha-numeric to multimedia including video, voice and images and active components like Java applets and ActiveX.
6. Amenable – XML documents are text based, easy to read and understand, can be processed easily by humans or computers. The structure of data is contained in XML documents which not only makes it easy to read but also is great way of data organization and management.
7. Robust and Durable – XML technology provides a powerful configuration for data storage and transmission. This is because it is based on predetermined standards and hence can be corroborated and text based documents outlives traditional binary files.
8. Free-format & free of charge – XML is a W3C standard that is available for free of cost use and since it is platform and system independent no data is lost when transmitted between systems that use different formats. The tree structure of XML allows data to be easily mapped in applications with different formats.
9. Ease of data translation – XML documents can be easily translated to other formats because structure is distinguished from content, and also because of confirmation to high industry standards. XML sub-language XLIFF can be used for translating XML to other formats.
Triple Constraints of Project Management
Project success greatly depends on whether or not constraints set for project are satisfied. The triple constraints of project management are Scope, Time and Cost. A project with time constraints can be called successful if project is delivered within specified time. Similarly projects with scope or cost constraint will be called successful projects if scope or cost constraints are satisfied respectively.
Slowly Changing Dimensions and Date Chaining
Attributes that experience changes once in a while are called slowly changing dimensions. Date type attributes that need to be updated while saving previous records, are managed using the concept of date chaining.
What is XML Technology
XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. The name extensible comes from the fact that users can create unlimited number of tags and reuse those tags; where as the name mark-up is because of XML"ýýs simple approach to structure data that is by using descriptive labels. It was derived from SGML (Standard Generalized Mark-up language) mainly for more manageable data storage and transportation.
