Background

XML

XML is the eXtensible Markup Language, a way of encoding data in a file with markup that explains to readers what the data represents.

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Systems that interface with eLandings can generally continue to use an outdated schema if they do not use data elements contained in a newer schema. While the eLandings development team recommends that all interfacing systems keep up to date on schema versions, we recognize that it can be difficult or inconvenient to update interface code in a timely manner. The eLandings system supports the use of legacy versions of the schema. The system upgrade automatically upgrades incoming data to the current version of the schema automatically.

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XML is very much an IT standard, and many tools are available for reading and writing XML documents, and for extracting from XML documents the component data.

JAXB

The eLandings development team uses JAXB from Sun Microsystems for working with XML documents in Java.

Visual Studio

The Visual Studio integrated development environment from Microsoft includes tools to read an XML schema and provide programatic access to documents created from that schema.