Media type · application/xml
application/xml
application/xml is the media type for generic XML documents.
Key facts
| Type | application/xml |
|---|---|
| Extensions | .xml |
| Standard | RFC 7303 |
| Text or binary | Text |
| Legacy alternative | text/xml |
What application/xml is
It identifies an XML document whose vocabulary is not otherwise registered. RFC 7303 prefers application/xml for generic XML and reserves text/xml for compatibility. The optional charset parameter should agree with the encoding declared in the XML declaration.
Encoding and parsing failures
An XML parser reads the declaration <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> and the byte stream. If the HTTP charset and the declaration disagree, the parser may fail or misread characters. A byte-order mark can also confuse naive parsers. Validate the document independently of the transport: a well-formedness error is different from a schema violation.
Frequently asked questions
Is application/xml better than text/xml?
RFC 7303 prefers application/xml for generic XML. text/xml remains for compatibility but is not the default choice.
Why does my XML fail to parse after upload?
Check encoding first — a mismatch between the HTTP charset and the XML declaration is a common cause. Then check well-formedness, such as an unclosed tag.