3 ms·
One thing that's contrary to how XML is historically used but helps a lot.. do not use child elements where an attribute suffices: eg, don't do this, from the
by unilynx 7y ago
One thing that's contrary to how XML is historically used but helps a lot.. do not use child elements where an attribute suffices:
eg, don't do this, from the article:
<Users>
<User>
<FirstName>Michael</FirstName>
<LastName>Scott</LastName>
<FavoriteMovies>
<Movie>Diehard</Movie>
<Movie>Threat Level Midnight</Movie>
</FavoriteMovies>
</User>
...
</Users>
but write it like this
<Users>
<User FirstName="Michael" LastName="Scott">
<FavoriteMovies>
<Movie Title="Diehard" />
<Movie Title="Threat Level Midnight" />
</FavoriteMovies>
</User>
...
</Users>
Much easier to query for a specific element (eg, try to XPath or CSS Selector query for all of Michael Scott's favourite movies with the first syntax), and the schema is a lot easier to write and reason about
(I don't have to wonder if multiple LastNames might be allowed, if I can set a xml:lang attribute on any of them, if the ordering of FirstName and Lastname elements is constrained, etc etc)