Re: How long before services sending/receiving XML might need replacemen

As noted by Dimitre Novatchev, the serialisation usage of XML seems to be more and more challenging as support wanes. Toolsets such as XML document databases are superseded in mainstream software development stacks by document stores focussed on storing JSON. Take a typical HTTP Client module implementing the HTTP protocols: typically they will have methods built in for serialisation/deserialisation to/from JSON, less and less up-to-date modules having XML features built in. These facts must inevitably start to accumulate to have an affect on technology decision makers deciding whether to support XML in input and output from APIs and on government technology leaders in deciding which format to require for submissions of information to government departments. In the UK the initial drive to focus on XML for transferring data to/from government bodies was enshrined in the Electronic Government Interoperability Framework (eGIF) but that is now sidelined and it seems that a more agile, adaptive approach has taken its place which could simply drop XML. I suspect other countries which once followed the UK with eGIF standards have taken a similar path towards adaptation. The original champions of XML in government and business (I remember Mr Gates evangelising BizTalk XML schema library in the early 2000s) have retired and moved on to other initiatives. Nobody is taking their place. Such changes to the driving forces must inevitably lead to technological changes at some point.

On Tue, 9 Nov 2021 at 16:30, Stephen D Green <stephengreenubl@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi XML Dev’ers,

Do you have any opinion on how long software systems communicating with each other (one-way or two-way) using XML might be able to continue to use XML this way? If, say, governments currently require data or documents to be sent to them in XML format, what professional advice would you suggest about how long would be reasonable before this use of XML should be replaced? Or do you think such uses of XML could reasonably be perpetual?

Many thanks for your consideration.

Stephen Green
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Stephen D Green