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XML (Extensible Markup Language)

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a structured markup format for representing hierarchical data — older than JSON, still common in enterprise integrations, SOAP, and document standards.

What is XML?

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a markup format that represents structured data using nested tags. Older than JSON, more verbose, more strictly schema-able (XSD), and still everywhere in legacy enterprise integrations, SOAP web services, RSS feeds, and document standards (Office Open XML, OpenDocument).

Why it matters in 2026

  • Modern APIs default to JSON, but enterprise integrations (banking, healthcare, government) still depend heavily on XML
  • Industry standards (HL7, FpML, SAML) live in XML
  • If you sell into enterprise, you'll meet XML eventually

XML vs. JSON

  • XML: verbose, supports attributes, mature schema validation (XSD), namespaces
  • JSON: lighter, faster to parse, dominant for new web APIs
  • Use XML when: legacy integration, strict schema validation needed, document-style data
  • Use JSON when: new API design, web-app payloads, AI tool calls

How TexAu helps

TexAu speaks JSON natively, but its workflow steps and webhook handlers can ingest XML payloads from upstream enterprise systems and convert them to structured rows for the rest of the pipeline.

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