Learn about nodes, and why they matter. A sample XML document developed by Javertising based on a DTD authored by Zedak Corporation. Find out here. An element is a component of a document. Elements can be made up of other elements, another type of data, or nothing but a descriptive representation that tells the XML parsing application something about a resource that exists somewhere other than within the document itself.
Elements can consist of content.
Their purpose is generally to organize the structure of a document. An easy way to think about how this works is a book chapter outline in a technical publication. A chapter outline usually consists of several top top-level headings. Within each top top-level heading are subheads. Sometimes, these subheads have their own subheads.