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15. HTML vs. XML: An Application Example

This section illustrates the power of XML compared to HTML for delivery of information over the Web.
Lets say that youre a faucet manufacturer with a parts catalog on your website. With XML, you can add tags for specific characteristics. For example, you might have the following elements:
Based on these and other elements, you would create data sheets for each of the faucets you produce. To create a data sheet, you could set up a system to draw some of the information such as dimensions and prices from a traditional database, and draw other information such as descriptions and feature/benefit lists from a database of document fragments.
These application-specific tags provide several advantages:
Automation You could add a variety of functions that automate your website or add links to transaction applications. For example, you could set up a function so that clicking on a faucets part number brings up an order entry form, or set up a simple search function to display all of the faucet models that match the requirements that a user specifies in an online form.
Precise Searching If other faucet manufacturers adopt the same tagging, then people looking for information on faucets can create a query that returns all the appropriate data and little or none that is inappropriate. For example, if you were looking to purchase a chrome faucet for your bathroom, you could use an XML-enabled search engine to perform a search based on the tags (e.g., faucet, finish, room) as well as their contents (e.g., bathroom, chrome). This search would produce precisely what you needed and nothing extra.
Obtaining this benefit from XML depends on two innovations:
Some industries, including aerospace, automotive, computer hardware and software, semiconductors, telecommunications, and trucking, have already come together to agree on industry-standard sets of tags. Although these efforts have been based on SGML and not XML, nearly all of the SGML-based work can be applied to XML-based implementations.
Interchange Building contractors could capture faucet information from the Web and import that data directly into their estimating software and design systems without rekeying or any other manual processes.
Protection from Browser Changes Instead of embedding the formatting instructions in your document, you specify the formatting in a separate stylesheet. This "presentation independence" (which is a benefit that SGML provides as well) allows you to apply tagging once and only once. Each time a new version of a browser appears with new display capabilities, you simply change your stylesheet to adjust your formatting and leave your data alone.
In our faucet example, if you wanted to change the display of the type of faucet from 14 pt. Helvetica Bold to green flashing 16 pt. Ornamental, you would simply change the stylesheet.
To summarize the implications of this example, organizations considering the use of XML instead of HTML should look for the following characteristics in their data:

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