This allows the system to be more flexible and able to adapt quickly to changing technology. ECommerce systems have many layers and communication tiers. Each of these tiers needs to be capable of communicating with the others and with external systems. Using an XML interface offers the ability to interface with other software packages or applications. This allows the system to grow and extend rapidly with the changing technology.
Standards are great to work with and are usually around for awhile.
Once the decision to use XML to communicate within your eCommerce application has been made, it's now time to build it. Whether this functionality is being added to an existing system or an entirely new application is being built, the following steps are important in ensuring a successful transition. The first step to a successful integration is to identify the system and its components. You then need to define what specific data is passed back and forth between applications. Let's look at an example for this discussion.