Why is XML becoming so popular?
Text based, platform independent, extensible, tools available
Well formed XML Documents
DTD - Document Type Definitions/Validations
DOM - Document Object Model
Linking and Querying Documents
Independent of transport protocol
Open - XML can be used to exchange data with other users and programs in platform-independent way
Share Data - Prior coordination is not needed to share data between programs
Self-describing - Makes it an effective choice for B2B and extranet solutions