XML Tips and Techniques

In my last post, I showed how we could represent an XML file in a more compact format. One of techniques I employed was to organize "records" under their common key. In my example, I used the IP address of visitors to my website/blogsites as the common key. I took what was originally an XML attribute, clientip, in each <serverlogentry> element, and grouped them as a new attribute under a new <visitor> element. I also took the date attribute of the <serverlogentry> elements and grouped them into a new element, <date>, with an attribute value containing the grouped date.

The fact is, XML is a very open standard. I could have rearranged and regrouped the original WSML (Web Server Markup Language) file in numerous different ways, depending on my application requirements. Whether I save a value as an XML tag attribute or as an element is really up to my needs. It's arguable, but I feel that using attributes is done so primarily for human convenience. It's easier to glance at raw XML and see what some tag's attribute are, especially if you use a tool like Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to view the XML (see halfway down this linked post). While using attributes whenever possible instead of elements actually saves file space, I seem to recall something in the XML spec stating that lack of verbosity isn't a goal of XML.

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