JarCastingjstoxml
Convert JavaScript objects (and JSON) to XML (for RSS, Podcasts, etc.)
Everyone loves JSON, and more and more folks want to move that direction, but we still need things outputted in XML! Particularly for RSS feeds and Podcasts.
This is inspired by node-jsontoxml, which was found to be a bit too rough around the edges. jstoxml attempts to fix that by being more flexible.
Installation
- npm install jstoxml
Changelog
Version 2.0.0 (breaking)
- New: automatic entity escaping for
&,<, and>characters. In addition, quotes"in attributes are also escaped (see #41). Prior to this, users had to provide their own filter manually. Note thatjstoxmlmakes an effort not to escape entities that appear to have already been encoded, to prevent double-encoding issues.- E.g.
toXML({ foo: '1 < 2 & 2 > 1' }); // -> "<foo>1 < 2 & 2 > 1</foo>" - To restore the default behavior from
v1.x.x, simply pass infalsetofilterandattributesFilteroptions:toXML({ foo: '1 < 2 & 2 > 1' }, { filter: false, attributesFilter: false }); // -> "<foo>1 < 2 & 2 > 1</foo>"
- E.g.
Version 1.6.9
- fix for #40. Previously top-level objects and arrays were concatenated without proper line breaks.
Version 1.4.2
- support for handling arrays of primitives, instead of simply concatenating #33
Version 1.3.0
- restored
defaultmodule export #31
Version 1.2.0
- refactoring and cleanup
Version 1.1.0
- Added support for attribute filtering (see Example 11b below).
Version 1.0.0
- Complete rewrite! The code should now be easier to understand and maintain.
- now supports emoji/UTF8 tag attributes (needed for AMP pages - e.g.
<html ⚡ lang="en">) (see example 14) - now supports duplicate attribute key names (see example 15)
- Fixed: functions returning objects now have now that output passed through toXML for XML conversion
- Fixed: empty text strings now properly output self-closing tags
- Migrated tests to mocha
Examples
First you'll want to require jstoxml in your script, and assign the result to the namespace variable you want to use (in this case jstoxml):
// Node
const { toXML } = require('jstoxml');
// Browser (with the help of something like Webpack or Rollup)
import { toXML } from 'jstoxml';
// Browser global fallback (requires no bundler)
var toXML = window.jstoxml.toXML;
Example 1: Simple object
toXML({
foo: 'bar',
foo2: 'bar2'
});
Output:
<foo>bar</foo><foo2>bar2</foo2>
Note: because JavaScript doesn't allow duplicate key names, only the last defined key will be outputted. If you need duplicate keys, please use an array instead (see Example 2 below).
Example 2: Simple array (needed for duplicate keys)
toXML([
{
foo: 'bar'
},
{
foo: 'bar2'
}
]);
Output:
<foo>bar</foo><foo>bar2</foo>
Example 3: Simple functions
toXML({ currentTime: () => new Date() });
Output:
<currentTime>Mon Oct 02 2017 09:34:54 GMT-0700 (PDT)</currentTime>
Example 4: XML tag attributes
toXML({
_name: 'foo',
_content: 'bar',
_attrs: {
a: 'b',
c: 'd'
}
});
Output:
<foo a="b" c="d">bar</foo>
Example 5: Tags mixed with text content
To output text content, set a key to null:
toXML({
'text1': null,
foo: 'bar',
'text2': null
});
Output:
text1<foo>bar</foo>text2
Example 6: Nested tags (with indenting)
const xmlOptions = {
header: false,
indent: ' '
};
toXML({
a: {
foo: 'bar',
foo2: 'bar2'
}
}, xmlOptions);
Output:
<a>
<foo>bar</foo>
<foo2>bar2</foo2>
</a>
Example 7: Nested tags with attributes (with indenting)
const xmlOptions = {
header: false,
indent: ' '
};
toXML({
ooo: {
_name: 'foo',
_attrs: {
a: 'b'
},
_content: {
_name: 'bar',
_attrs: {
c: 'd'
}
}
}
}, xmlOptions);
Output:
<ooo>
<foo a="b">
<bar c="d"/>
</foo>
</ooo>
Note that cases like this might be especially hard to read because of the deep nesting, so it's recommend you use something like this pattern instead, which breaks it up into more readable pieces:
const bar = {
_name: 'bar',
_attrs: {
c: 'd'
}
};
const foo = {
_name: 'foo',
_attrs: {
a: 'b'
},
_content: bar
};
const xmlOptions = {
header: false,
indent: ' '
};
return toXML({
ooo: foo
},
xmlOptions);
Example 8: Complex functions
Function outputs will be processed (fed back into toXML), meaning that you can output objects that will in turn be converted to XML.
toXML({
someNestedXML: () => {
return {
foo: 'bar'
}
}
});
Output:
<someNestedXML><foo>bar</foo></someNestedXML>
Example 9: RSS Feed
const xmlOptions = {
header: true,
indent: ' '
};
toXML({
_name: 'rss',
_attrs: {
version: '2.0'
},
_content: {
channel: [
{
title: 'RSS Example'
},
{
description: 'Description'},
{
link: 'google.com'},
{
lastBuildDate: () => new Date()
},
{
pubDate: () => new Date()
},
{
language: 'en'},
{
item: {
title: 'Item title',
link: 'Item link',
description: 'Item Description',
pubDate: () => new Date()
}
},
{
item: {
title: 'Item2 title',
link: 'Item2 link',
description: 'Item2 Description',
pubDate: () => new Date()
}
}
]
}
}, xmlOptions);
Output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>RSS Example</title>
<description>Description</description>
<link>google.com</link>
<lastBuildDate>Sat Jul 30 2011 18:14:25 GMT+0900 (JST)</lastBuildDate>
<pubDate>Sat Jul 30 2011 18:14:25 GMT+0900 (JST)</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
<item>
<title>Item title</title>
<link>Item link</link>
<description>Item Description</description>
<pubDate>Sat Jul 30 2011 18:33:47 GMT+0900 (JST)</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Item2 title</title>
<link>Item2 link</link>
<description>Item2 Description</description>
<pubDate>Sat Jul 30 2011 18:33:47 GMT+0900 (JST)</pubDate>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
Example 10: Podcast RSS Feed
(see the Apple docs for more information)
const xmlOptions = {
header: true,
indent: ' '
};
toXML({
_name: 'rss',
_attrs: {
'xmlns:itunes': 'http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd',
version: '2.0'
},
_content: {
channel: [
{
title: 'Title'
},
{
link: 'google.com'
},
{
language: 'en-us'
},
{
copyright: 'Copyright 2011'
},
{
'itunes:subtitle': 'Subtitle'
},
{
'itunes:author': 'Author'
},
{
'itunes:summary': 'Summary'
},
{
description: 'Description'
},
{
'itunes:owner': {
'itunes:name': 'Name',
'itunes:email': 'Email'
}
},
{
_name: 'itunes:image',
_attrs: {
href: 'image.jpg'
}
},
{
_name: 'itunes:category',
_attrs: {
text: 'Technology'
},
_content: {
_name: 'itunes:category',
_attrs: {
text: 'Gadgets'
}
}
},
{
_name: 'itunes:category',
_attrs: {
text: 'TV & Film'
}
},
{
item: [
{
title: 'Podcast Title'
},
{
'itunes:author': 'Author'
},
{
'itunes:subtitle': 'Subtitle'
},
{
'itunes:summary': 'Summary'
},
{
'itunes:image': 'image.jpg'
},
{
_name: 'enclosure',
_attrs: {
url: 'http://example.com/podcast.m4a',
length: '8727310',
type: 'audio/x-m4a'
}
},
{
guid: 'http://example.com/archive/aae20050615.m4a'
},
{
pubDate: 'Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:00:00 GMT'
},
{
'itunes:duration': '7:04'
},
{
'itunes:keywords': 'salt, pepper, shaker, exciting'
}
]
},
{
item: [
{
title: 'Podcast2 Title'
},
{
'itunes:author': 'Author2'
},
{
'itunes:subtitle': 'Subtitle2'
},
{
'itunes:summary': 'Summary2'
},
{
'itunes:image': 'image2.jpg'
},
{
_name: 'enclosure',
_attrs: {
url: 'http://example.com/podcast2.m4a',
length: '655555',
type: 'audio/x-m4a'
}
},
{
guid: 'http://example.com/archive/aae2.m4a'
},
{
pubDate: 'Wed, 15 Jul 2011 19:00:00 GMT'
},
{
'itunes:duration': '11:20'
},
{
'itunes:keywords': 'foo, bar'
}
]
}
]
}
}, xmlOptions);
Output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Title</title>
<link>google.com</link>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>Copyright 2011</copyright>
<itunes:subtitle>Subtitle</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:author>Author</itunes:author>
<itunes:summary>Summary</itunes:summary>
<description>Description</description>
<itunes:owner>
<itunes:name>Name</itunes:name>
<itunes:email>Email</itunes:email>
</itunes:owner>
<itunes:image href="image.jpg"/>
<itunes:category text="Technology">
<itunes:category text="Gadgets"/>
</itunes:category>
<itunes:category text="TV & Film"/>
<item>
<title>Podcast Title</title>
<itunes:author>Author</itunes:author>
<itunes:subtitle>Subtitle</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary>Summary</itunes:summary>
<itunes:image>image.jpg</itunes:image>
<enclosure url="http://example.com/podcast.m4a" length="8727310" type="audio/x-m4a"/>
<guid>http://example.com/archive/aae20050615.m4a</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<itunes:duration>7:04</itunes:duration>
<itunes:keywords>salt, pepper, shaker, exciting</itunes:keywords>
</item>
<item>
<title>Podcast2 Title</title>
<itunes:author>Author2</itunes:author>
<itunes:subtitle>Subtitle2</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:summary>Summary2</itunes:summary>
<itunes:image>image2.jpg</itunes:image>
<enclosure url="http://example.com/podcast2.m4a" length="655555" type="audio/x-m4a"/>
<guid>http://example.com/archive/aae2.m4a</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Jul 2011 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<itunes:duration>11:20</itunes:duration>
<itunes:keywords>foo, bar</itunes:keywords>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
Example 11: Custom filter for XML entities, or whatever
const xmlOptions = {
filter: {
'<': '<',
'>': '>',
'"': '"',
'\'': ''',
'&': '&'
}
};
toXML({
foo: '<a>',
bar: '"b"',
baz: '\'&whee\''
}, xmlOptions);
Output:
<foo><a></foo><bar>"b"</bar><baz>'&whee'</baz>
Example 11b: Custom filter for XML attributes
const xmlOptions = {
attributesFilter: {
'<': '<',
'>': '>',
'"': '"',
'\'': ''',
'&': '&'
}
};
toXML({
_name: 'foo',
_attrs: { a: '<"\'&"foo>' }
}, xmlOptions);
Output:
<foo a="<"'&"foo>"/>
Example 12: Avoiding self-closing tags
If for some reason you want to avoid self-closing tags, you can pass in a special config option _selfCloseTag:
const xmlOptions = {
_selfCloseTag: false
};
toXML({
foo: '',
bar: undefined
}, xmlOptions);
Output:
<foo></foo><bar>whee</bar>
Example 13: Custom XML header
const xmlOptions = {
header: '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" standalone="yes"?>'
};
toXML({
foo: 'bar'
}, xmlOptions);
Output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" standalone="yes"?><foo>bar</foo><foo2>bar2</foo2>
Example 14: Emoji attribute support (needed for AMP)
toXML({
html: {
_attrs: {
'⚡': true
}
}
});
Output:
<html ⚡/>
Example 15: Duplicate attribute key support
toXML({
html: {
_attrs: [
{
lang: 'en'
},
{
lang: 'klingon'
}
]
}
});
Output:
<html lang="en" lang="klingon"/>
License
MIT