XML

XML (Extensible Markup Language)

XML is a set of rules for encoding documents in a format which is both human-readable and machine-readable, as well as software and hardware-independent.

It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C and several other related specifications; all are fee-free open standards. This is available to all fastsms users via the API.

XML is the universal format for data on the Web. Its design goals emphasise simplicity, generality and usability across the Internet.

It is a textual data format with strong support via Unicode for different human languages. It allows developers to easily describe and deliver rich, structured data from any application in a standard, consistent way.

It does not replace HTML; rather, it is a complementary format. It allows designers to create their own customised tags, enabling the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications and between organisations.

XML is a pared-down version of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), designed especially for Web documents.  The advent of the XML profile has made SGML suitable for widespread application for small-scale, general-purpose use. For example, SOAP is an XML-based protocol.

Several schema systems exist to aid in the definition of XML-based languages, while many application programming interfaces (APIs) have been developed to aid the processing of XML data.

Wikipedia entry here. Details of API in fastsms Knowledge Base.

The API allows you to perform various actions such as sending and receiving messages, credit information and contacts. A valid API request consists of an authentication section followed by as many other sections as required in any order. For example, in one API request, you could send one message to three recipients, another message to another recipient, check your inbound messages and add a contact.