XML Best Practices

• Always provide an XSD for validation, code-completion and auto-generation of XML
• Do not use elements that only contain attributes as they are difficult to parse and extend
• Always declare the character encoding and use UTF-8 unless there is a good reason why not
• Use structures instead of delimiting fields within elements
• Wrap repeated elements in parents to make them more human-readable
• Do not repeat element names in different contexts
• Do not unnecessarily abbreviate element and attribute names

See: http://java.dzone.com/articles/crimes-against-xml