Is there any advantage in learning xml for someone who only knows basic

html, css and javascript? Should I learn a server side scripting language and a database before attempting to learn xml?

I still don't exactly know what xml is used for, will I have a use for it if all I know is html,css and basic javascript?

Yes quite a big advantage. After you understand XML have a look at Ajax.

http://www.w3schools.com/ajax/default.asp

This is how I use XML:

For my front end I am using Adobe Flex 2, and when I need to go get data I make a "HTTP Service call". I tell it to go to the url (getmydata.php) and send it the proper variables to post.

On my server where the "getmydata.php" php script resides, there is a mysql database. It queries the database and returns a row using mysql fetch row... and from there... I convert it to XML.....

because when it returns... Adobe Flex knows how to handle XML data and I can access it with methods already programmed in flex! It's nice!!


So in this case (and with many other cases)....

XML is used as a 3rd party common language for data formatting. You can share data between PHP, FLEX, JAVA.... (insert your favorite language here) and all the programs will be able to manipulate all the data.

XML is a generic way to store data. It generally isn't useful without knowing a programming language, and knowing about databases is generally more useful then knowing about XML.

So - you'll _probably_ be best off learning a programming language and database before you worry about XML.

(Incidentally, while AJAX might be a big thing at present, and while the X in it's name might stand for XML ... most AJAX doesn't involve XML, and uses fragments of HTML, plain text, or JSON instead)