Extensible Markup Language. A flexible way to create common information formats and share both the format and the data on the World Wide Web, intranets, and elsewhere. XML is a formal recommendation from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) similar to the language of today's Web pages, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
XML Interviews are getting tough these days as the technology grows faster. To get through the XML interview one needs to update him/herself in a regular manner. Having said that, just before the interview, it is very important to have a quick glance of the reputed XML questions and answers to make yourself comfortable during the interview process. This is where DoAnswers.com helps you in renewing yourself on XML and various other technologies interview preparation.
31. What is a markup language?
A markup language is a set of words and symbols for describing the identity of pieces of a document (for example ?this is a paragraph', ?this is a heading', ?this is a list', ?this is the caption of this figure', etc). Programs can use this with a style sheet to create output for screen, print, audio, video, Braille, etc.
Some markup languages (e.g. those used in word processors) only describe appearances (?this is italics', ?this is bold'), but this method can only be used for display, and is not normally re-usable for anything else.
32. What is all that binary goo I see in your files?
Our documents use packages that contain the XML data alongside binary data such as images. The packages use the well known ZIP format. Just open an sxw/sxc/... file with a ZIP-tool of your choice, and you get access to the unadulterated XML. The document meta data (in the meta.xml stream) is not compressed. This allows for easy searching and extraction of the meta data.
33. What is DOM and how does it relate to XML?
The Document Object Model (DOM) is an interface specification maintained by the W3C DOM Workgroup that defines an application independent mechanism to access, parse, or update XML data. In simple terms it is a hierarchical model that allows developers to manipulate XML documents easily Any developer that has worked extensively with XML should be able to discuss the concept and use of DOM objects freely. Additionally, it is not unreasonable to expect advanced candidates to thoroughly understand its internal workings and be able to explain how DOM differs from an event-based interface like SAX.
34. What is DOM?
The Document Object Model (DOM) is an interface specification maintained by the W3C DOM Workgroup that defines an application independent mechanism
to access, parse, or update XML data. In simple terms it is a hierarchical model that allows developers to manipulate XML documents easily.
35. What is SGML?
SGML is the Standard Generalized Markup Language (ISO 8879:1985), the international standard for defining descriptions of the structure of different types of electronic document. There is an SGML FAQ at http://www.infosys.utas.edu.au/info/sgmlfaq.txt which is posted every month to the comp.text.sgml newsgroup, and the SGML Web pages are at http://xml.coverpages.org/. SGML is very large, powerful, and complex. It has been in heavy industrial and commercial use for over a decade, and there is a significant body of expertise and software to go with it. XML is a lightweight cut-down version of SGML which keeps enough of its functionality to make it useful but removes all the optional features which make SGML too complex to program for in a Web environment.
36. What is SOAP and how does it relate to XML?
The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) uses XML to define a protocol for the exchange of information in distributed computing environments. SOAP consists of three components: an envelope, a set of encoding rules, and a convention for representing remote procedure calls. Unless experience with SOAP is a direct requirement for the open position, knowing the specifics of the protocol, or how it can be used in conjunction with HTTP, is not as important as identifying it as a natural application of XML.
37. What is SOAP?
The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) uses XML to define a protocol for the exchange of information in distributed computing environments. SOAP
consists of three components: an envelope, a set of encoding rules, and a convention for representing remote procedure calls.
38. What is the difference between DOM and SAX? What would you use if an option is given?
DOM parses an XML document and returns an instance of org.w3c.dom.Document. This document object's tree must then
be "walked" in order to process the different elements. DOM parses the ENTIRE Document into memory, and then makes it
available to you. The size of the Document you can parse is limited to the memory available.
SAX uses an event callback mechanism requiring you to code methods to handle events thrown by the parser as it
encounters different entities within the XML document. SAX throws events as the Document is being parsed. Only the
current element is actually in memory, so there is no limit to the size of a Document when using SAX.
The specific parser technology that will be used will be determined by the requirements of your application. If you need the
entire document represented, you will most likely use DOM builder implementation. If you only care about parts of the
XML document and/or you only need to parse the document once, you might be better served using SAX implementation.
39. What is the difference between XML and C or C++?
C and C++ (and other languages like FORTRAN, or Pascal, or BASIC, or Java or dozens more) are programming languages with which you specify calculations, actions, and decisions to be carried out in order: mod curconfig[if left(date,6) = "01-Apr", t.put "April Fool!", f.put days('31102001','DDMMYYYY')-days(sdate,'DDMMYYYY') " shopping days to Samhain"]; XML is a markup specification language with which you can design ways of describing information (text or data), usually for storage, transmission, or processing by a program: it says nothing about what you should do with the data (although your choice of element names may hint at what they are for): Camshaft end bearing retention circlip Ringtown Fasteners Ltd Angle-nosed insertion tool is required for the removal and replacement of this item.
40. What is XML for?
XML is intended `to make it easy and straightforward to use SGML on the Web: easy to define document types, easy to author and manage SGML-defined documents, and easy to transmit and share them across the Web.' It defines `an extremely simple dialect of SGML which is completely described in the XML Specification. The goal is to enable generic SGML to be served, received, and processed on the Web in the way that is now possible with HTML.' `For this reason, XML has been designed for ease of implementation, and for interoperability with both SGML and HTML' [Quotes are from the XML specification]. XML is not just for Web pages: it can be used to store any kind of structured information, and to enclose or encapsulate information in order to pass it between different computing systems which would otherwise be unable to communicate.