xCal is an

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

representation of the

iCalendar The Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification (iCalendar) is a media type which allows users to store and exchange calendaring and scheduling information such as events, to-dos, journal entries, and free/busy information, ...

standard. xCal is not an alternative nor next generation of

. xCal represents iCalendar components, properties and parameters as defined in iCalendar. This format was selected to ease its translation back to the iCalendar format using an

XSLT XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is a language originally designed for transforming XML documents into other XML documents, or other formats such as HTML for web pages, plain text, or XSL Formatting Objects. These formats c ...

transform.

Compatible software

The XML format of xCal lends itself to XML tools like

Apache Cocoon Apache Cocoon, usually abbreviated as Cocoon, is a web application framework built around the concepts of Pipeline, separation of concerns, and component-based web development. The framework focuses on XML and XSLT publishing and is built usin ...

, and allows for a server to deliver xCal, which is then transformed by a browser or other client using

External links

RFC 6321
xCal: The XML format for iCalendar on

IETF The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet standard, Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster ...

XML-based standards {{markup-languages-stub