Designing Data-Only Interfaces
Often, the express purpose of a web page is to deliver data to a webbot, another website, or a stand-alone desktop application. These web pages aren’t concerned about how people will read them in a browser. Rather, they are optimized for efficiency and ease of use by other computer programs. For example, you might need to design a web page that provides real-time sales information from an e-commerce site.
XML
Today, the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is considered the de facto standard for transferring online data. XML describes data by wrapping it in HTML-like tags. For example, consider the sample sales data from an e-commerce site, shown in Table 29-1.
Table 29-1. Sample Sales Information
Brand | Style | Color | Size | Price ... |
|---|
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