ok before i conform and move over to xml and or xhtml i wanted to know somthing. this is a completley newbie question, because simply im havent worked with either of them before. if i was to creat a site in xml or xhtml, would it be like html? meaning the ability to add in, lets say java scripts, cgi scripts an php scripts? if any one could give me a few good refrence sites that would be wounderful. ive read a little bit on eatch of them Xhtml is just a steap up from html. but im still not quite sure what .xml is . can you created a website off of just xml? or do i have xhtml and xml confused? and one other thing, whats the pros and cons to both of them?

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Hi,

you can find a good XML tutorial here: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/98/10/guide0.html
XML does not markup hypertext or any other layout thingies. XML marks up content. XML gives you the ability to structure your content. You can name your own tags: <book>, <title>, <author> ... You CAN transform your XML data to HTML and sure it's possible to combine XML with PHP and others. But XML can do much more than being displayed in the internet. I try to give you an example: You go on vacation tomorrow. Tonight you look on the website of your airport, whether the flight will be delayed. In the morning you arrive on the airport and you look on this big black noise-making board in the entrance hall where all the flights are shown. You find your flight and go to your gate. The thing is, that BOTH, the website and the board read their data from the SAME xml-file. There is ONE file located on a server somewhere. Your mobile phone might understand the same data, the only difference is the way that the machines display the data. Pretty soon your freezer might talk XML.

GreetingZ

 

 

 

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Wow, would you suggest using xml or xhtml? meaning witch one would i be better off using on my website . I havent started building it yet, and i really didnt want to go html it then have to go back and convert it. I see you said it is possible to add html into a Xml page? the way i took your advice , kida like SSI. you store information on a xml file and call it up on your lets say .index page. Thats wounderful , but i would like to know how you can focus on visual with Xml , since xml is all about constructing and focusing on the infomation it self. Thanks for the help... id love more of it!

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Well, I think you have to answer your question yourself. What do you want from your website? What are your requirements?. If it's a static website, it's absolutely not necessary to use xml. I think it would not make sense to use XML, if the same aims could be solved with (X)HTML.

What do you mean with "focus on visual in XML"? You can use stylesheets (CSS or XSLT) to transform the XML data into HTML, but you can also do a HTML page with "XML-islands" in it. What kind of site are you planning to do?

An XML/XSL-solution is perfect if the content of your site often changes. The stylesheet stays the same and the content changes as soon as you upload a new version of the xml-file.

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First XHTML is modeled through XML. But since XML is not widely used i think you should use XHTML. It has every feature you want, PHP, ASP, Javascript, and other things. The only difference between HTML and XHTML is that XHML is strict coding elements/tags. For example, in HTML you could youse the opening <p> paragraph tag without even using the </p> closing tag. But in XHTML you must use the </p> closing tag. If the element/directive has no corresponding closing tag like for example the line break. You still have to closed it in XHTML by adding a space and a forward slash like this, <br />.
Second, all attributes in an XHTML element/tag must have a value. In HTML there are attributes that does not have a value and its fine. But not in XHTML, so what you have to do is give this attribute a value with its own attribute name. Like for example if you an attribute GOOD which has no value, give it a value good, good="good".
Third in XHTML all elements/tags must be in small caps. Unlike in HTML you could code the center tag like this <CeNTeR>...</cEntEr> but not in XHTML.
Finally, all attribute values in XHTML must be enclosed with double qoutations. If you have the habit of not enclosing values with double quotation like this align=left then you must stop that kind of habit in XHTML becuase you need to put the double quotation mark like this one align="left".
In general I recommend using XHTML becuase it more neat to write and professionaly good. For a full description of HTML and XHTML visit the site of the organization which is responsible for making standards in HTML. There web address is www.w3c.org. You can find the complete reference of HTML, XHTML. THey also have their own validator which validates your HTML or XHTML code to see if it has any code error or not following the standards the markup language.
Feel free to drop me a message if you have a question. I suggest that you have to buy a book beware of some websites that offers tutorials some of them only confuses the readers. And even some of them mixes up the XHTML coding with the HTML. ALthough it is not that a big problem since most browser just happily interpret the mixed up codes but it is a better idea not to. Consider also using the cascading style sheet technology specialy with tables that are used for layouting your web pages. Good Luck.

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