js2xmlparser

Overview

js2xmlparser is a Node.js module that parses JavaScript objects into XML.

Features

Since XML is a data-interchange format, js2xmlparser is designed primarily for JSON-type objects, arrays and primitive data types, like many of the other JavaScript to XML parsers currently available for Node.js.

However, js2xmlparser is capable of parsing any object, including native JavaScript objects such as Date and RegExp, by taking advantage of each object's toString function or, if this function does not exist, the String constructor.

js2xmlparser also has support for the Map and Set objects introduced in ECMAScript 2015, treating them as JSON-type objects and arrays respectively. Support for Maps is necessary to generate XML with elements in a specific order, since JSON-type objects do not guarantee insertion order. Map keys are always converted to strings using the method described above.

js2xmlparser also supports a number of constructs unique to XML:

attributes (through an attribute property in objects)
mixed content (through value properties in objects)
multiple elements with the same name (through arrays)

js2xmlparser can also pretty-print the XML it outputs.

Installation

The easiest way to install js2xmlparser is using npm:

npm install js2xmlparser

You can also build js2xmlparser from source using npm:

git clone https://github.com/michaelkourlas/node-js2xmlparser.git
npm install
npm run-script build

The build script will build the production variant of js2xmlparser, run all tests, and build the documentation.

You can build the production variant without running tests using the script prod. You can also build the development version using the script dev. The only difference between the two is that the development version includes source maps.

Usage

The documentation for the current version is available here.

You can also build the documentation using npm:

npm run-script docs

Examples

The following example illustrates the basic usage of js2xmlparser:

var js2xmlparser = require("js2xmlparser");

var obj = {
    "@": {
        type: "natural",
    },
    firstName: "John",
    lastName: "Smith",
    dateOfBirth: new Date(1964, 7, 26),
    address: {
        "@": {
            type: "home",
        },
        streetAddress: "3212 22nd St",
        city: "Chicago",
        state: "Illinois",
        zip: 10000,
    },
    phone: [
        {
            "@": {
                type: "home",
            },
            "#": "123-555-4567",
        },
        {
            "@": {
                type: "cell",
            },
            "#": "890-555-1234",
        },
        {
            "@": {
                type: "work",
            },
            "#": "567-555-8901",
        },
    ],
    email: "john@smith.com",
};

console.log(js2xmlparser.parse("person", obj));

This example produces the following XML:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<person type='natural'>
    <firstName>John</firstName>
    <lastName>Smith</lastName>
    <dateOfBirth>Wed Aug 26 1964 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Summer Time)</dateOfBirth>
    <address type='home'>
        <streetAddress>3212 22nd St</streetAddress>
        <city>Chicago</city>
        <state>Illinois</state>
        <zip>10000</zip>
    </address>
    <phone type='home'>123-555-4567</phone>
    <phone type='cell'>890-555-1234</phone>
    <phone type='work'>567-555-8901</phone>
    <email>john@smith.com</email>
</person>

Additional examples can be found in the examples directory.

Tests

js2xmlparser includes a set of tests to verify core functionality. You can run the tests using npm:

npm run-script test-prod

The only difference between the test-prod and test-dev scripts is that the development version includes source maps.