Friendly-XML

A basic xml parser/serializer inspired by PHP's SimpleXML

This is a basic sax-js based xml parser which converts an xml formatted string into a sensible json object which can be used to locate xml values, edit xml values, and serialize json objects back into an xml string. This is more for basic xml parsing, it may not be super stable for more advanced scenarios as I'm not an expert in the uses xml but it should work for the purposes of basic xml reading/manipulation

Installation

npm install friendly-xml

Methods

ParseString( xml_string, callback );

(xml_string: string) - an xml formatted string

(callback: json_object->void) - a function which takes one argument which will be the resulting json object passed from the parser or null if the parser failed to read the supplied string

asXML( json_object );

Returns an xml formatted string based on a json object. ( ie. json_object )

Parsing Usage

Parsing is done in the expected way

var FXML = require('friendly-xml');

FXML.ParseString( xml_string, function( result )
{
	//Result will be json object
	if( result != null ) { console.log( result ); }
} );

JSON Manipulation

Any actual xml values will be put in the "val" field. Any other xml attributes will be under their respective name. Assuming the following xml:

<Library>
  <book Genre="horror">
		<Title>IT</Title>
  </book>
</Library>

The JSON object can be manipulated as follows:

FXML.ParseString( xml_string, function( result )
{
	if( result.Library.book.Genre == "Horror" )
		console.log( result.Library.book.Title.val + " is a horror book!" );
		
	  result.Library.book.Title.val = "The Jungle Book";
	  result.Library.book.Genre = "Disney";
	  
	  //Or Alternatively
	  
	  result['Library']['book']['Title']['val'] = "The Jungle Book";
	  result['Library']['book']['Genre'] = "Disney";
	  
	  console.log( FXML.asXML( result ) );
} );

The above would output:

IT is a horror book!

<Library>
  <book Genre="Disney">
	<Title>The Jungle Book</Title>
  </book>
</Library>

( I realize "Disney" isn't actually a genre. Im tired huh? Been a long day )

Arrays

If the xml has a repeating tag, it will be converted to an array

Assuming the following xml:

<Movies>
	<Favorites>
		<Title Genre="Magic">Harry Potter 1</Title>
		<Title Genre="Magic">Chronicles Of Narnia</Title>
		<Title Genre="Action">Lethal Weapon</Title>
	</Favorites>
</Movies>

It can be used in this way:

FXML.ParseString( xml_string, function( result )
{
	//Has same val property and attributes as other singular nodes 
	//i.e: result.Movies.Favorites.Title[0].val
	//i.e: result.Movies.Favorites.Title[0].Genre

	result.Movies.Favorites.Title.forEach( movie => {
		console.log( movie.Genre )
		console.log( movie.Val )
	});
} );

Hopefully someone finds this to be of use!

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Vance Palacio

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.