Create XML in JavaScript

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

How can I solve this error?

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);

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

[xml-writer(npm package)][1] [1]: https://www.npmjs.com/package/xml-writer

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());

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

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.

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.

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>