I am planning a future upgrade to my section Story of the Day using XML. As you may have noticed, I update the current page with a new story regularly. In answer to customer requests, the upgrade will involve creating an archive of old stories as new ones are added. With the resulting pages tagged in XML, you will be able to access and enjoy reading a much wider choice of my stories on your mobile phone, PDA or whatever computerised reading device you have.

You may have heard of HTML, XML and XHTML. They are all simply different markup languages that structure, carry and/or style the content (text and images) you see on the web pages of a website. The content on this website is currently using XHTML (eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language), which allows me to create and style my web pages so that they look attractive and are easily accessible to everyone who wants to check out my website.

Plain XML (eXtensible Markup Language) though, does not style content the way the other markup languages do. If it did, the style bells and whistles of the content would make it harder for much smaller hand held reading devices such as mobile phones to download or even show the data. XML structures, stores and transports data as plain text. It acts as a content carrier only and such an extremely efficient one that all kinds of computerised reading devices can access XML tagged document data, even voice machines. If you are curious about XML, the W3 Schools website offers simple and easy to follow information on the subject:

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_whatis.asp

There may be some disadvantages for you, the customer. Very old web browsers such as early versions of Internet Explorer may not be able to read the XML tagged content, in which case I suggest you upgrade your browser to the newest version. You can do that courtesy of your browser website free of charge, easily and within minutes. Another possible disadvantage is that the pages will look slightly different to the rest of my website, as more plain and unadorned XML tagged text.

However I believe the advantages in the long term trump any of these possible and minor inconveniences. I will be able to store and update my Story Pages website content much more easily and efficiently. And you, the customer, will have the pleasure of being able to quickly search, download, and access my latest exciting story on your smartphone on the long train ride home.