Newbie to XML - what is it anyway?

[StuartW]

Right. First - sorry for being annoying and posting this, BUT (there had to be a but didn't there! )

This is what I understand about XML so far:

1. It's a format for data -

<entries>
<entry date="17-06-2001" title="title1" text="blah"/>
<entry date="18-06-2001" title="title2" text="more blah"/>
</entries>

2. You can load it into flash like this (is that right?) -

entriesXML = newXML();
entriesXML.load("entries.xml");

I expect there's a bit more to it than that isn't there, but anyway.

3. It formats into a text box something like:

17-06-2001
title 1
blah

18-06-2001
title 2
more blah

So that aside -

I've been using PHP and mySQL under my flash pages for the back end of the sites I am developing.

So I was wondering if XML was going to make life easier for me - I know you can get PHP to parse XML - or whether I should stick to my database methods.

Or whether they are two very different things?

Sorry to be a pain and post this here, but any pointers to tut's, etc. would be appreciated.

Cheers muchly - all appreciated,

Stu


[Edited by StuartW on 06-18-2001 at 06:39 AM]

[StuartW]

Nevermind.

Someone has just brought my attention to Flash 5 Magic, which has an excellent tutorial on XML and complex database integration in the last chapters.

Just thought any other newbies to XML might like to know.

Fantastic Book. Happy Daze

Stu