Web communication contains four key parts: content, structure, behaviour, and presentation.
Content
Content is the heart of information. Without content there is nothing to present, nothing to structure, and nothing to bahave(?). Content is the "what" of communication, while the other three parts are the "how". Content could answer the question, "What is on the radio?".
Wynton Marsalis
This
does answer the question, but it
does not answer the question in whole. Is this answer the artist, the song, the album? The content is not classified. A better response might be:
Artist: Wynton Marsalis
Song Title: Separation Blues
Album Title: Wyton Marsalis
Is this starting to look familiar? XML uses this kind of syntax to organize information. To help clear things up, XML marks the end of a class of information, in addition to the beginning.
<artist>Wynton Marsalis</artist>
<albumtitle>Wynton Marsalis</albumtitle>
<songtitle>Separation Blues</songtitle>
"Structure Alert, Will Robinson! Structure Alert!"
I intentionally used the word "organize" when I refered to XML syntax. XML organizes information in the same way that a file cabinet organizes all of your research. When it is time to give a presentation on your research you
access only the
relevant research and quickly assemble (
structure) it for a powerpoint presentation. You don't need to use all of it, but it is all there, ready to be accessed in a way that you understand.
Back to our first example: "What is the title of this song on the radio?" is looking for a
specific bit of information about what is on the radio. Using XML syntax we can filter out all the irrelevant information and produce the desired information:
<songtitle>Separation Blues</songtitle>
The organizational syntax of XML is the connectors of tinker toys. It allows 'sticks' of content to be
structured.
