XML Syntax

An XML document is structured on the following building blocks:
Elements
Delimited by starting and ending tags
Example:
        <title>The Lord of the Rings</title>
Elements can also be empty; a special shortcut makes them smaller:
Example:
        <dvd></dvd>
is the same as
        <dvd />
Attributes
Name=valua pairs in the starting tag, that can be used for metadata
Example:
        <title lang="english">The Lord of the Rings</title>
Entity references
Are used to refer to special (reserved) symbols
SymbolEntity reference
<&lt;
>&gt;
&&amp;
"&quot;
'&apos;
Comments
Delimited by the <!-- and -> sequence
Example:
        <!-- this is a comment ->

Example

<!-- List of shipped books -->
<booklist>
        <book>
                <isbn>0-387-02620-7</isbn>
                <title>Beyond Fear</title>
                <author>
                        <givenname>Bruce</givenname>
                        <familyname>Schneier</familyname>
                </author>
                <price>30.00</price>
        </book>
        <book>
                <isbn>0-201-79940-5</isbn>
                <title>Code Reading</title>
                <author>
                        <givenname>Diomidis</givenname>
                        <familyname>Spinellis</familyname>
                </author>
                <price>50.00</price>
        </book>
        <book>
                <isbn>0-07-246535-2</isbn>
                <title>Database Management Systems</title>
                <author>
                        <givenname>Raghu</givenname>
                        <familyname>Ramakrishnan</familyname>
                </author>
                <author>
                        <givenname>Johannes</givenname>
                        <familyname>Gehrke</familyname>
                </author>
                <price>40.00</price>
        </book>
        <book>
                <isbn>0-19-502402-8</isbn>
                <title>The Timeless Way of Building</title>
                <author>
                        <givenname>Cristopher</givenname>
                        <familyname>Alexander</familyname>
                </author>
                <price>60.00</price>
        </book>
        <book>
                <isbn>3-8218-0479-3</isbn>
                <title lang="german">Lexikon der Populaeren Irrtuemer</title>
                <author>
                        <givenname>Walter</givenname>
                        <familyname>Kraemer</familyname>
                </author>
                <author>
                        <givenname>Goetz</givenname>
                        <familyname>Trenkler</familyname>
                </author>
                <price>40.00</price>
        </book>
</booklist>