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XML Tag Rules for Future-proofing your Web Site

Here are the Tag rules for XML.

XML only has a few rules, and the programs that read won't load the file if you break even a single, tiny one of those rules.

XML is written in plain text. Here is a summary of the rules:

XML documents use a simple, self-describing syntax
All XML elements must have a closing tag
XML tags are case sensitive
All XML elements must be nested in the correct order
All XML documents must have a root element
Attribute values must always have quotes around them
With XML, white space is kept intact
With XML, CR / LF is converted to LF

Link to W3C online XML syntax rules. You must be connected to the Internet to use this link. (Opens in its own window)

You can create XML with any text editor. However, XML is easier to read and validate with an editor that is designed for creating and reading XML.

XML is similar to HTML, except that XML is strict about all tags. Here are the rules:

XML is self-referring. This means that you can create your own tags. XML is extensible. This also means that you can expand tags to anything that you want.

The catch is that unless you follow XML's really tight rules, you won't be able to do anything with your document, and you won't be able to read your document with a Web browser.

XHTML is a hybrid. XHTML is really a HTML document that follows the specific rules for XML tags very strictly.

Link to the rules of XML Tags.

Here are links to the XML editors on this site.