XML in 2007: The Year In Review

In XML 2007: A Year In Review, Elliotte Rusty Harold, Adjunct Professor, Polytechnic University, takes a look back at the popular markup language and documents some of the year’s most important XML-related events.

2007 was a productive year for XML. The most sound and fury focused around the standardization of office document formats, a fight that even spilled over into the popular press. (Who ever thought you’d be reading about ISO standards for XML formats in the Wall Street Journal?) But if I had to pick the most important story of the year, I’d be hard pressed to choose between the continuing slow growth of XQuery, APP, and XForms. All have the potential to radically alter the software infrastructure that underlies the Web. XForms is a radically new client-development platform, XQuery is a radically new server-development platform, and APP connects them together. Of the three, XQuery is ready for serious production use today, and APP is gearing up. Look for big things from both of them in 2008. XForms is running behind and may be a little late to the party, but I hope it gets there before the doors close. Either way, the future for XML on the Web looks brighter than ever.