Structured export formats

HTML and XML are text-based formats, so there is no fundamental difference between designing a template for HTML or XML export compared to other plain text files. The only difference is that the text file must conform to HTML and XML specifications.

HTML results must be a well-formed HTML, ensuring that all properties contain no characters that might invalidate the HTML specification, such as unescaped “<” or “&” characters. This is particularly relevant for especially user-entered text such as descriptions and notes.

Systems that process XML often are very strict about syntax and well-formedness. Be careful not to generate text that might invalidate the XML or confuse the recipient. For instance, beware of unescaped “<” or “&” characters in a notes field. If possible, you could export data within an XML <CDATA> tag, which allows more types of characters and character strings without problems of unescaped characters.