B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

Universal language
Extensible Markup Language (XML) 165
XML is a universal language which can be used in possibly all
applications, such as legacy systems, ERP, CRM, graphical user interface
for applications, object-oriented applications in C++ and Java, databases
such as Oracle, Sybase and ODBMS powered XML repository, to name
just a few.
Softwares that are properly coded to parse certain XML documents
can even understand languages that use a different character set, like
Arabic or Japanese. This enables the exchange of information, not only
between different computer systems and applications, but also across
languages and countries.
Powerful XML-based search engines
Since XML documents contain contextual information, XML-based
search engines are more likely to retrieve exact results matching a
search query. These search engines can also retrieve specific portions of
an XML file rather than presenting the whole file to the user. This not
only saves network bandwidth, but also gives faster access to relevant
information for the user.
Common open standard
XML is based on common open standards, which decouples it from
proprietary browsers, parsers, editors, etc. This is one of the great
benefits of XML.
Provides a 'one-server view' for distributed data
In distributed applications, the data and elements that form an XML
document can be distributed over multiple remote servers. Undoubtedly,
XML is the most sophisticated format for distributed data.
XML compresses very well
Compression of data essentially means maximizing the throughput of a
given input stream. Since XML documents are structured and highly