Generate XML document in-memory with JavaScript

Question

I am working on a Web application that needs to send XML to a server backend. I\'d like to build a XML document in-memory on the client-side, but using XML manipulation rout

Answer 1

If your desired XML structure can be represented in a JavaScript object having the same structure, then you could create such an object and use the following function to convert that object to XML:

/*  Arguments:
      name: name of the root XML-element 
      val: the data to convert to XML
    Returns: XML string 
    Example: toXml("root", { items: { item: [1, 2] } })
      returns: "12"
*/
function toXml(name, val) {
    const map = {"<":"<", ">":">", "&":"&", "'":"&apos", '"':"""};
    if (Array.isArray(val)) return val.map(elem => toXml(name, elem)).join``;
    const content =  Object(val) === val
        ? Object.keys(val).map(key => toXml(key, val[key])).join``
        : String(val).replace(/[<>&'"]/g, m => map[m]);
    return `<${name}>${content}`;
}

// Example:
const report = {
    submitter: { name: "John Doe" },
    students: {
        student: [{ name: "Alice", grade: 80 }, 
                  { name: "Bob",   grade: 90 }]
    }
};

console.log(
    '' +
    toXml("report", report));