Now that you are well versed with the concepts and syntax of JSON, and you have a working example of how to use JSON for client-side API communication, let's see how we can take advantage of server-side technologies to transfer data between the client and the server.
Until recently, the world of asynchronous communication was ruled by XML. While in production successfully, XML is still an extremely bulky language, increasing data transfer overhead. Perhaps its biggest downfall, however, is that XML is commonly generated by server languages who many times do not have an XML converter, requiring manual conversion. Then, they are delivered to client languages, most notably JavaScript, who also do not have native support for XML. It would make more sense, for code simplicity and maintenance, for everyone to speak the same language.
Until recently, the world of asynchronous communication was ruled by XML. While in production successfully, XML is still an extremely bulky language, increasing data transfer overhead. Perhaps its biggest downfall, however, is that XML is commonly generated by server languages who many times do not have an XML converter, requiring manual conversion. Then, they are delivered to client languages, most notably JavaScript, who also do not have native support for XML. It would make more sense, for code simplicity and maintenance, for everyone to speak the same language.
