Guidelines for the Use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) within IETF Protocols

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a framework for structuring data. While it evolved from Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) -a markup language primarily focused on structuring documents -XML has evolved to be a widely-used mechanism for representing structured data. There are a wide variety of Internet protocols being developed; many have need for a representation for structured data relevant to their application. There has been much interest in the use of XML as a representation method. This document describes basic XML concepts, analyzes various alternatives in the use of XML, and provides guidelines for the use of XML within IETF standards-track protocols. Conventions Used In This Document This document recommends, as policy, what specifications for Internet protocols -and, in particular, IETF standards track protocol documents -should include as normative language within them. The capitalized keywords "SHOULD", "MUST", "REQUIRED", etc. are used in the sense of how they would be used within other documents with the meanings as specified in BCP 14, RFC 2119 [1]. Hollenbeck, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 1]