Create XML in Javascript

Question

I'm wondering, is it possible to create an XML file with some data in Javascript? I have the data stored in variables.

I've googled around a bit and it doesn't seem like it's talked about much. I thought i could use XMLWriter such as this:

var XML = new XMLWriter();
XML.BeginNode ("testing");
XML.Node("testingOne");
XML.Node("TestingTwo");
XML.Node("TestingThree");
XML.EndNode();

as stated in this tutorial:EHow Tutorial

However, when i execute this code i get the following error:

ReferenceError: XMLWriter is not defined

Any ideas on how i can get started with this?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Disclaimer: The following answer assumes that you are using the JavaScript environment of a web browser.

JavaScript handles XML with 'XML DOM objects'. You can obtain such an object in three ways:

1. Creating a new XML DOM object

var xmlDoc = document.implementation.createDocument(null, "books");

The first argument can contain the namespace URI of the document to be created, if the document belongs to one.

Source: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/DOMImplementation/createDocument

2. Fetching an XML file with XMLHttpRequest

var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (xhttp.readyState == 4 && xhttp.status == 200) {

    var xmlDoc = xhttp.responseXML; //important to use responseXML here
}
xhttp.open("GET", "books.xml", true);
xhttp.send();

3. Parsing a string containing serialized XML

var xmlString = "<root></root>";
var parser = new DOMParser();
var xmlDoc = parser.parseFromString(xmlString, "text/xml"); //important to use "text/xml"

---

When you have obtained an XML DOM object, you can use methods to manipulate it like

var node = xmlDoc.createElement("heyHo");
var elements = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("root");
elements[0].appendChild(node);

For a full reference, see http://www.w3schools.com/xml/dom_intro.asp

Note: It is important, that you don't use the methods provided by the document namespace, i. e.

var node = document.createElement("Item");

This will create HTML nodes instead of XML nodes and will result in a node with lower-case tag names. XML tag names are case-sensitive in contrast to HTML tag names.

You can serialize XML DOM objects like this:

var serializer = new XMLSerializer();
var xmlString = serializer.serializeToString(xmlDoc);

Answer 2

Consider that we need to create the following XML document:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<people>
  <person first-name="eric" middle-initial="H" last-name="jung">
    <address street="321 south st" city="denver" state="co" country="usa"/>
    <address street="123 main st" city="arlington" state="ma" country="usa"/>
  </person>

  <person first-name="jed" last-name="brown">
    <address street="321 north st" city="atlanta" state="ga" country="usa"/>
    <address street="123 west st" city="seattle" state="wa" country="usa"/>
    <address street="321 south avenue" city="denver" state="co" country="usa"/>
  </person>
</people>

we can write the following code to generate the above XML

var doc = document.implementation.createDocument("", "", null);
var peopleElem = doc.createElement("people");

var personElem1 = doc.createElement("person");
personElem1.setAttribute("first-name", "eric");
personElem1.setAttribute("middle-initial", "h");
personElem1.setAttribute("last-name", "jung");

var addressElem1 = doc.createElement("address");
addressElem1.setAttribute("street", "321 south st");
addressElem1.setAttribute("city", "denver");
addressElem1.setAttribute("state", "co");
addressElem1.setAttribute("country", "usa");
personElem1.appendChild(addressElem1);

var addressElem2 = doc.createElement("address");
addressElem2.setAttribute("street", "123 main st");
addressElem2.setAttribute("city", "arlington");
addressElem2.setAttribute("state", "ma");
addressElem2.setAttribute("country", "usa");
personElem1.appendChild(addressElem2);

var personElem2 = doc.createElement("person");
personElem2.setAttribute("first-name", "jed");
personElem2.setAttribute("last-name", "brown");

var addressElem3 = doc.createElement("address");
addressElem3.setAttribute("street", "321 north st");
addressElem3.setAttribute("city", "atlanta");
addressElem3.setAttribute("state", "ga");
addressElem3.setAttribute("country", "usa");
personElem2.appendChild(addressElem3);

var addressElem4 = doc.createElement("address");
addressElem4.setAttribute("street", "123 west st");
addressElem4.setAttribute("city", "seattle");
addressElem4.setAttribute("state", "wa");
addressElem4.setAttribute("country", "usa");
personElem2.appendChild(addressElem4);

var addressElem5 = doc.createElement("address");
addressElem5.setAttribute("street", "321 south avenue");
addressElem5.setAttribute("city", "denver");
addressElem5.setAttribute("state", "co");
addressElem5.setAttribute("country", "usa");
personElem2.appendChild(addressElem5);

peopleElem.appendChild(personElem1);
peopleElem.appendChild(personElem2);
doc.appendChild(peopleElem);

If any text need to be written between a tag we can use innerHTML property to achieve it.

Example

elem = doc.createElement("Gender")
elem.innerHTML = "Male"
parent_elem.appendChild(elem)

For more details please follow the below link. The above example has been explained there in more details.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document_object_model/How_to_create_a_DOM_tree

Answer 3

this work for me..

var xml  = parser.parseFromString('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><root></root>', "application/xml");

developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/DOMParser

Answer 4

Only works in IE

 $(function(){

        var xml = '<?xml version="1.0"?><foo><bar>bar</bar></foo>'; 

        var xmlDoc=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
        xmlDoc.async="false";
        xmlDoc.loadXML(xml);

        alert(xmlDoc.xml);

    });

Then push xmlDoc.xml to your java code.

Answer 5

Simply use

var xmlString = '<?xml version="1.0" ?><root />';
var xml = jQuery.parseXML(xml);

It's jQuery.parseXML, so no need to worry about cross-browser tricks. Use jQuery as like HTML, it's using the native XML engine.

Answer 6

Your code is referencing this library

You can include it, and then your code in question should run as is. If you want to do this without prepending the library & build it with builtin functions only - follow answer from @Seb3736.

In Browser Example

<html>
<head>
    <script src="Global.js" language="javascript"></script>
    <script src="XMLWriter.js" language="javascript"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
        function genXML(){
            var XML = new XMLWriter();
            XML.BeginNode ("testing");
            XML.Node("testingOne");
            XML.Node("TestingTwo");
            XML.Node("TestingThree");
            XML.EndNode();
            //Do something... eg.
            console.log(XML.ToString); //Yes ToString() not toString()
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <input type="submit" value="genXML" onclick="genXML();">
</body>
</html>

Answer 7

xml-writer(npm package) I think this is the good way to create and write xml file easy. Also it can be used on server side with nodejs.

var XMLWriter = require('xml-writer');
xw = new XMLWriter;
xw.startDocument();
xw.startElement('root');
xw.writeAttribute('foo', 'value');
xw.text('Some content');
xw.endDocument();
console.log(xw.toString());