Convert Json to XML properly

Question

I have following dictionary structure

[{
    "Body" : [{
        "Universal Lift Support" : ["1\"-9\" Extended Length",
                                    "10\"-14.5\" Extended Length",
                                    "15\"-19\" Extended Length",
                                    "20\" + Extended Length"]
    }]

I wanted to use the dicttoxml library to get desired xml-output like:

<root>
    <Body>
        <Universal Lift Support>
            1"-9" Extended Length
            10"-14.5" Extended Length
            15"-19" Extended Length
            20" + Extended Length
        </Universal Lift Support>

However, after applying the next code:

dicttoxml.dicttoxml(result, attr_type=False, root=True)

I got xml-structure like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><root><item><Body><item><Universal_Lift_Support><item>1"-9" Extended Length</item><item>10"-14.5" Extended Length</item><item>15"-19" Extended Length</item><item>

What options can help to format and get the output as descibed above?

If you are referring to the ..., have you read the docs for dicttoxml because that's what it says it does. See https://pypi.python.org/pypi/dicttoxml Or if you are referring to the fact that the"Universal Lift Support" gets turned into "Universal_Lift_Support", well you can't have spaces in xml tags. Or if you are referring to the fact that your text has been put in seperate items, well, whitespace isn't significant in xml so maybe that's the way dicttoxml chose to represent multiline text. Basically, your "desired" translation is neither valid xml nor what dicttoxml defaults to — DisappointedByUnaccountableMod, Jul 05 '17 at 17:17

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 05 '17 at 20:48

Consider using built-in Python libraries (json, xml.etree.ElementTree, and to pretty print, xml.dom.minidom) that traverses down json object and builds XML tree. One thing to note: XML nodes cannot contain spaces in names, so it should <UniversalLiftSupport>.

import json
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
import xml.dom.minidom

with open('BodyUniversal.json') as f:  
    jsondata = json.load(f)

# INITIALIZING XML DOC AND PARENT TAGS
root = ET.Element('root')
body = ET.SubElement(root, 'Body')
uls = ET.SubElement(body, 'UniversalLiftSupport')
uls.text = ''

# ITERATE THROUGH LIST, APPENDING TO XML
for i in jsondata[0]['Body'][0]['Universal Lift Support']:
    uls.text = uls.text + '\n\t\t\t' + i

# OUTPUT AND PRETTY PRINT TREE
tree_out = ET.tostring(root, encoding="UTF-8")
newXML = xml.dom.minidom.parseString(tree_out.decode('UTF-8'))
pretty_xml = newXML.toprettyxml()    

print(pretty_xml)
# <?xml version="1.0" ?>
# <root>
#         <Body>
#                 <UniversalLiftSupport>
#                         1&quot;-9&quot; Extended Length
#                         10&quot;-14.5&quot; Extended Length
#                         15&quot;-19&quot; Extended Length
#                         20&quot; + Extended Length</UniversalLiftSupport>
#         </Body>
# </root>

# OUTPUT XML CONTENT TO FILE
with open('Output.xml','w') as f:
    f.write(pretty_xml)

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 05 '17 at 17:11

Probably you'll have to code a function to generate the xml for the list the way you want: https://github.com/quandyfactory/dicttoxml/blob/master/dicttoxml.py

(see dicttoxml function comment)

Seems the "<item>whatever</item>" pattern is hardcoded and if you use cdata=True you'll get the whole '<![CDATA[whatever]]>' stuff.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 05 '17 at 19:44

0

If the software is called dicttoxml, then I think it would be reasonable to expect it to generate XML. The output that you say you want is not XML, so it's not surprising that this tool doesn't generate it. You seem to be complaining that the product does what it says on the tin.

answered Jul 05 '17 at 19:44

Michael Kay

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No, I didn't complain. I just asked if it possible to get the output with that library or similar python package – SpanishBoy Jul 05 '17 at 19:57
As a said, if you want non-XML output then don't use a tool that's designed to produce XML. – Michael Kay Jul 05 '17 at 21:24

Convert Json to XML properly

3 Answers3

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