You should consider using InfoML if you need a content storage format that:

  • handles plain or styled text, with or without associated tags
  • captures both content and its associated metadata
  • provides already-made format for importing and exporting your content
  • can represent both "chunks" of content and the relationships between them
  • can be customized to meet both present and future needs without breaking existing software

For new software

Why implement and maintain both a custom data format and the tools for manipulating it? InfoML provides a robust data format that either meets your current needs or can be extended to do so. Using InfoML enables you to spend more of your time working on the unique parts of your software that only you can create.

For existing software

Even if you already have working software, existing XML technologies can significantly reduce the effort needed to add "Export to Infocards" and "Import from Infocards" functions. Doing so will make your software more valuable to your customers:
  • By enabling your customers to export their data to an XML-based format, they will be able to manipulate such data into other useful forms.
  • Once your software's data can be stored in the InfoML format, exporting it in different ways is as easy as writing and XSLT file. In fact, you can even enable your customers to create their own customized export formats. See Infocard Organizer for a rudimentary example of how this can be done.
  • The structure of the InfoML format may suggest new directions for your current software.
  • By using InfoML as a standard interchange format for data, you may discover opportunities for creating new software products that manipulate data from your existing software.