How can I respond in XML using ExpressJS?

Question

I have a simple code that gives a JSON response for a specific route. Here's my current code:

var express = require('express')
  , async = require('async')
  , http = require('http')
  , mysql = require('mysql');

var app = express();

var connection = mysql.createConnection({
    host: 'localhost',
    user: '****',
    password: "****",
    database: 'restaurants'
});

connection.connect();

// all environments
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 1235);
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public/images'));


app.get('/DescriptionSortedRating/',function(request,response){
    var name_of_restaurants;

    async.series( [
        // Get the first table contents
        function ( callback ) {
            connection.query('SELECT * FROM restaurants ORDER BY restaurantRATING', function(err, rows, fields)
                {
                        console.log('Connection result error '+err);
                        name_of_restaurants = rows;
                        callback();
                });

 }
   // Send the response
], function ( error, results ) {
    response.json({
        'restaurants' : name_of_restaurants
    });
} );

} );



http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function(){
  console.log('Express server listening on port ' + app.get('port'));
});

How can I make an XML response equivalent to the JSON above?

score 73 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 28 '14 at 06:57

73

You can use any number of the XML libraries available on npm. Here's an example using the simply-named "xml" library:

var xml = require('xml');

response.set('Content-Type', 'text/xml');
response.send(xml(name_of_restaurants));

See the module's documentation for a description of how it converts JavaScript objects to XML. If you need things returned in a specific XML format, you'll have more work to do, of course.

answered Jan 28 '14 at 06:57

Ethan Brown

26,892
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Thanks i got the xml response from your answer .... but please have a look at this link http://stackoverflow.com/q/21399572/1083093 .... instead of two only one column is generating – Devrath Jan 28 '14 at 07:42
5

response.set('Content-Type', 'application/xml') - i've read this is more correct, just throwing it out there – buycanna.io Jul 17 '17 at 07:26
If you use 'application/xml' you need to specify the charset somewhere – wpercy Aug 16 '17 at 17:28
TypeError: res.set is not a function – Prageeth godage Sep 26 '19 at 03:57
@Prageethgodage are you doing this from within a request handler? if not, `res` won't be what you think it is. https://expressjs.com/en/4x/api.html#res.set – Ethan Brown Sep 27 '19 at 22:02
1

if i could like this a hundred times I would. after spending 3+ hours your answer is the first one I found that actually worked. – Greg Harner Sep 18 '20 at 00:54
Thanks, @GregHarner, I'm glad it was helpful! – Ethan Brown Sep 23 '20 at 20:24

score 29 · Answer 2 · edited May 31 '18 at 09:31

29

As an update to this, it looks like res.type should be used instead as res.set does not give the same results.

res.type('application/xml');

More information can be found in the API reference.

edited May 31 '18 at 09:31

Toby Speight

27,591
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answered May 31 '18 at 09:13

Christopher Dyke

291
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3

this answer helped, however `res.header('Content-Type', 'text/xml');` make more sense to me specially when you have lots of other headers – Inzamam Malik Feb 06 '22 at 18:49

How can I respond in XML using ExpressJS?

2 Answers2

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