What is XML
XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. It's a text-based format designed to store and transport data in a way that both humans and machines can read. Unlike HTML, which focuses on displaying content in a browser, XML focuses purely on describing what the data is and how it's organized.
When you're scraping websites, you'll encounter XML in two main ways: as a format for data exports (like RSS feeds or API responses) and as the underlying structure that helps you understand how HTML pages are organized. Both HTML and XML follow similar tree-like hierarchies, which is why understanding XML makes you better at web scraping.
How XML is structured
XML documents organize information in a tree structure where elements nest inside each other. Every XML file starts with a root element, and everything else branches out from there like a family tree. You can have parent elements, child elements, and sibling elements all clearly defined by their position in the hierarchy.
Here's what makes XML different from HTML: the tags aren't predefined. You create custom tags that describe your data. Instead of generic tags like div or span, you might see tags like product, price, or customer that actually tell you what the data represents. Tags are case-sensitive and must have both opening and closing tags.
XML supports both elements and attributes. Elements contain the actual data, while attributes provide extra information about that data. For web scraping purposes, elements are usually what you're after because they hold the content you want to extract.
XML vs HTML in web scraping
HTML and XML look similar because they both use tags, but they serve different purposes. HTML uses predefined tags focused on how content looks in a browser. XML uses custom tags focused on what the content means and how it's structured.
When you scrape websites, you're usually parsing HTML, but the techniques you use come straight from XML parsing methods. Both formats create a Document Object Model (DOM) that represents the page structure as a tree, and you navigate both using the same tools like XPath or CSS selectors.
Parsing XML for data extraction
Parsing means reading through XML structure and pulling out the specific pieces of data you need. You have several approaches to choose from.
DOM parsing
DOM parsing reads the entire XML document and creates a tree structure in memory. You can then navigate through this tree to find specific nodes and extract their content. This approach works well when you need to understand the complete structure of a page or when content is generated dynamically with JavaScript.
XPath queries
XPath is a query language specifically built for XML documents. It lets you write expressions that pinpoint exactly which elements you want. Instead of looping through every element, you write a path like /bookstore/book/title to grab all book titles directly.
XPath uses the tree structure to your advantage. You don't need to know the exact pattern of the data beforehand. You just describe the path through the hierarchy, and XPath finds all matching elements. This makes your scrapers more reliable because they can handle variations in the data.
CSS selectors
CSS selectors offer a simpler alternative to XPath. If you've done any web development, the syntax will feel familiar. While less powerful than XPath for complex queries, CSS selectors handle most common scraping tasks with cleaner, more readable code.
Why XML matters for web scraping
XML's structured format makes data extraction predictable. When information follows a clear hierarchy, you can write scraping rules that reliably find what you need across multiple pages. The parent-child relationships eliminate guesswork about how data pieces relate to each other.
XML is platform-independent. Your scraper can process XML the same way regardless of what programming language you use or what system you run it on. This consistency means you can share data between different tools and systems without compatibility headaches.
Many web services and APIs return data in XML format. When you request product information from an e-commerce API or news articles from an RSS feed, you're likely getting XML back. Knowing how to parse it efficiently is essential for extracting and organizing that data.
Common XML scraping scenarios
You'll use XML parsing when extracting product catalogs from e-commerce sites. The hierarchical structure helps you grab product names, prices, descriptions, and image URLs in one organized sweep. XPath expressions let you target specific product attributes without writing complex loops.
API responses frequently come in XML format. After making an API request, you parse the XML response to extract the specific fields you need and convert them into a format your application can use, like JSON or CSV.
RSS feeds are XML documents. If you're aggregating news articles, blog posts, or podcast episodes, you're parsing XML to extract titles, descriptions, publication dates, and links.
XML sitemaps help crawlers understand website structure. When you're building a scraper that needs to discover all pages on a site, the XML sitemap provides a complete map of available URLs organized by priority and update frequency.
Typical XML scraping workflow
First, you send a request to the target URL and receive the HTML or XML response. Then you parse that response into a DOM tree structure. Next, you use XPath or CSS selectors to identify the specific nodes containing your target data. You extract the text, attributes, or nested elements from those nodes. Finally, you organize the extracted data into your preferred format, whether that's a CSV file, JSON object, or database entry.
If you're crawling multiple pages, you also extract links from the current page, add them to your queue, and repeat the process for each new URL.
How Browse AI helps with XML and HTML parsing
If you don't want to write XML parsing code yourself, Browse AI handles the technical complexity for you. The platform uses a no-code approach where you simply point and click on the data you want to extract. Behind the scenes, Browse AI automatically figures out the HTML and XML structure, builds the right selectors, and handles parsing.
You get structured data exports in CSV or JSON without writing a single XPath expression. Browse AI also handles dynamic content and JavaScript-rendered pages, which often require complex DOM parsing when you're coding from scratch. This means you can focus on using the data instead of fighting with parsing libraries.
