Keywords
Webel IT Australia has a wealth of experience with data schema modelling for eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and JSON, including use of graphical Unified Modeling Language (UML®) modelling of schema, and using Wolfram Mathematica and Python for schema creation and schema transformation (and converting XML to JSON).
There are often debates about which is "best", XML or JSON. The reality is that they address different needs, and whilst JSON is now the "go to" choice for REST web services, XML is still appropriately the backbone of many technologies.
Apart from using dedicated XML and JSON tools, Webel IT Australia uses Wolfram Mathematica and Python for manipulating XML and JSON data, supported by the IntelliJ IDEA from JetBrains, which has excellent support for both XML and JSON.
The Wolfram Language of Mathematica has incredibly powerful capabilities for processing data, including Wolfram Language Patterns, and can be used to work with XML and JSON data in ways that mere coding language can't touch. And when it comes to visualising extracted data, Mathematica is in a league of its own!
Python has excellent core packages and additional libraries for handling XML and JSON.
Webel IT Australia has also employed Java™ libraries for XML manipulation, including use of JAXB for XML Schema bindings (now considered obsolete) and Apache XMLBeans.
XML, XSD, and XSLT
Dr Darren of Webel has worked with countless XML Schema (XSD) for over two decades, and has even reversed-engineered many XML Schema into graphical Unified Modeling Language (UML®).
For example, the project model persistence form for Unified Modeling Language (UML®) and Systems Modeling Language v1 (SysML®) project files for Model-Based Systems Engineering is the XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) schema developed by the Object Management Group (OMG).
Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) is an XML-based language for the transformation of XML documents. XML documents can be transformed to HTML for serving of data-centre web sites, into other XML Schema, into print formats such as PDF, or even into JSON. It is often wrongly considered an "old" technology; it is rather a very powerful and successful and robust technology that has aged well.
Even as recently as late 2024, Webel IT Australia used XSLT to create a simple yet highly useable HTML/XSL REST Demo application for client Simplx Pty Ltd for representation of building calculation data and for testing REST end points, and for tracking the development itself. Whilst not a replacement for a highly interactive modern web interface, and XSL driven HTML application can be developed very quickly, and forces one to "think in terms of data and data structures". And Python has good libraries for applying XSLT templates to XML data.
For that project, REST end points offered responses in both XML and JSON, whereby the XML was used in combination with XSLT to generate HTML pages and JSON was the primary end client consumption data format.
JSON and REST
When most people think of JSON, they likely think first of JSON in the context of JSON packages for RESTful web services. Webel IT Australia has worked extensively with JSON, especially in the building modelling space for clients such as Lendlease Digital and Simplx Pty Ltd.
JSON has wrongly earned something of a bad reputation for sloppy "code and reload" development practices against freestyle JSON without a robust schema, but JSON Schema can in fact be used to ensure data integrity.
The POSTman REST testing system has stunningly powerful features for inspecting JSON and for selecting desired data from JSON and for transforming JSON, supported by its unique Flow Query Language (FQL).
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