Standards set for XML

Microsoft is hinting at increased support for extensible mark-up language (XML) across its product lines, but denies that it's hijacking the language created by industry standards group the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), writes Andrew Craig.

Microsoft's Visual Studio development toolkit, SQL Server database and Office application suite are among the products set to include XML features, according to James Utzschneider, director of industry frameworks for Microsoft.

XML, which allows pages to function like database records, is an authoring language expected to succeed HTML. There are several proposed guidelines or 'schemas' for defining the structure, content and semantics of XML documents, but Microsoft says it will follow the recommendations set out by the W3C.

'Microsoft is totally committed not to splinter XML and to support the W3C,' said Utzschneider, speaking at Microsoft's Tech.Ed Europe in Amsterdam last week. 'We're supporting the W3C schema guidelines and what they're doing with XML.'

Microsoft is expecting initial take-up of XML only in key business areas.

Corporate purchasing is identified as one such key area where XML will allow automated processing of purchasing documents from a variety of sources.

The language also has a key role in presentation of documents, and is supported by increasing numbers of Microsoft applications.