EXTENSIBLE MARKUP LANGUAGE (XML)

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a flexible, structured markup language that was developed and recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in February 1998. It serves as a metalanguage—a language used to define other languages—which allows it to be used for a wide variety of purposes in web development, data exchange, and document encoding. XML's primary function is to facilitate the sharing of data across different systems, particularly systems connected via the internet.

XML is designed to be both human-readable and machine-readable, and it is highly extensible, meaning that it allows users to create their own customized tags. These characteristics make XML ideal for creating document formats and electronically sharing structured data, especially in complex applications like B2B transactions and database interoperability. The versatility and adaptability of XML have led to its widespread use in many industries and technologies, where it underpins many formats and protocols, including web services and configuration files.