Next Generation Application Integration: From Simple Information to Web Services

The Value of XML

XML provides a common data-exchange format, encapsulating both data and metadata. This format allows various applications and databases to exchange information without having to understand anything about one other. In order to communicate, a source system simply reformats a message, a piece of information moving from an interface, or a data record as XML-compliant text and moves that information to any other system that understands how to read XML.

Although we can now appreciate XML's value to application integration, it was originally created as a mechanism to publish data through the Web without the originator having to understand anything about the system sending the data. As the application integration problem became more ...