Convert JSON to XML

Turn JSON, for example a REST API response, into XML: generic XML in one line, or the exact XML layout another system expects.

Sample input

{
  "users": [
    {"id": 1, "name": "Alice Smith", "email": "alice@example.com"},
    {"id": 2, "name": "Tom & Jerry", "email": "tj@example.com"}
  ]
}

One-line conversion

bafi -i users.json -t '?{{toXML .}}'

<doc>
  <users>
    <email>alice@example.com</email>
    <id>1</id>
    <name>Alice Smith</name>
  </users>
  <users>
    <email>tj@example.com</email>
    <id>2</id>
    <name>Tom &amp; Jerry</name>
  </users>
</doc>

toXML wraps everything in <doc>; a top-level JSON array becomes a list of <record> elements. Special characters such as & are escaped for you.

Your own XML layout

When the receiving system expects specific element names, write them in the template. Use the built-in html function on every value: it escapes &, <, > and quotes, which is exactly what XML text and attributes need.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Customers>
{{- range .users}}
  <Customer id="{{.id}}">
    <Name>{{html .name}}</Name>
    <Email>{{html .email}}</Email>
  </Customer>
{{- end}}
</Customers>

bafi -i users.json -t users-xml.tmpl

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Customers>
  <Customer id="1">
    <Name>Alice Smith</Name>
    <Email>alice@example.com</Email>
  </Customer>
  <Customer id="2">
    <Name>Tom &amp; Jerry</Name>
    <Email>tj@example.com</Email>
  </Customer>
</Customers>

JSON numbers are printed without decimals when they are whole (1, not 1.0).

From an API

curl -fs https://example.com/api/users | bafi -f json -t users-xml.tmpl -o customers.xml

Related: XML to JSON · REST response to SOAP request