> 
> **Possible Duplicate:**  
> 
> [Should I use Elements or Attributes in XML?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1096797/should-i-use-elements-or-attributes-in-xml) 
> 
> 
> 

I'm writing a configuration file in XML and I am pretty much new to the whole XML craze.

I'm curious what the SO community thinks about how various values should be represented in XML, as I can see a couple of ways to do it.

For example, when should a value be an attribute and when should it be nested within tags?

```
<node1 message="Hello world" id="1" />

```

Versus

```
<node1>
  <message>Hello world</message>
  <id>1</id>
</node1>

```

Obviously this is an extremely simple example...but are there pro's and con's for doing certain types as an attribute versus child nodes? Or both or neither?