What are good alternative data formats to XML? [closed]

Answer 1

For the sake of completeness I will mention Edifact for which I wrote an interface a long time ago.

Answer 2

JSON is valid YAML which could be very useful. Two for one!

Answer 3

XML is OK for text markup, but for general structures serialization is a quite bad option, where JSON is much more suited.

Answer 4

I wouldn't dismiss plain text, like CSV or tab-delimited.

Answer 5

JSON can be used in many ways, but it is particularly well suited to use with MySQL tables I find. It works very well with Android as well (GSON library or JSON). Beyond that, it's effective at transmitting small bits of data individually or as arrays.

Answer 6

Don't forget about YAML!

JSON seems to have better support though. For example, the Prototype JS library has excellent built-in JSON functions.