Best way to generate xml

Question

I m creating an web api and need a good way to very quickly generate some well formatted xml  I cannot find any good way of doing this in python   Note  Some libraries look promising but either lack documentation or only output to files

User · Answer

An optional way if you want to use pure Python:

ElementTree is good for most cases, but it can't CData and pretty print.

So, if you need CData and pretty print you should use minidom:

minidom_example.py:

from xml.dom import minidom

doc = minidom.Document()

root = doc.createElement('root')
doc.appendChild(root)

leaf = doc.createElement('leaf')
text = doc.createTextNode('Text element with attributes')
leaf.appendChild(text)
leaf.setAttribute('color', 'white')
root.appendChild(leaf)

leaf_cdata = doc.createElement('leaf_cdata')
cdata = doc.createCDATASection('<em>CData</em> can contain <strong>HTML tags</strong> without encoding')
leaf_cdata.appendChild(cdata)
root.appendChild(leaf_cdata)

branch = doc.createElement('branch')
branch.appendChild(leaf.cloneNode(True))
root.appendChild(branch)

mixed = doc.createElement('mixed')
mixed_leaf = leaf.cloneNode(True)
mixed_leaf.setAttribute('color', 'black')
mixed_leaf.setAttribute('state', 'modified')
mixed.appendChild(mixed_leaf)
mixed_text = doc.createTextNode('Do not use mixed elements if it possible.')
mixed.appendChild(mixed_text)
root.appendChild(mixed)

xml_str = doc.toprettyxml(indent="  ")
with open("minidom_example.xml", "w") as f:
    f.write(xml_str)

minidom_example.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<root>
  <leaf color="white">Text element with attributes</leaf>
  <leaf_cdata>
<![CDATA[<em>CData</em> can contain <strong>HTML tags</strong> without encoding]]>  </leaf_cdata>
  <branch>
    <leaf color="white">Text element with attributes</leaf>
  </branch>
  <mixed>
    <leaf color="black" state="modified">Text element with attributes</leaf>
    Do not use mixed elements if it possible.
  </mixed>
</root>

User · Answer

Using lxml   from lxml import etree    create XML  root   etree Element  root   root append etree Element  child      another child with text child   etree Element  child   child text    some text  root append child     pretty string s   etree tostring root  pretty print True  print s   Output    lt root gt     lt child  gt     lt child gt some text lt  child gt   lt  root gt    See the tutorial for more information

User · Answer

I would use the yattag library  I think it s the most pythonic way   from yattag import Doc  doc  tag  text   Doc   tagtext    with tag  food        with tag  name            text  French Breakfast       with tag  price   currency  USD            text  6 95       with tag  ingredients            for ingredient in   baguettes    jam    butter    croissants                with tag  ingredient                    text ingredient    print doc getvalue

User · Answer

Use lxml builder class  from  http   lxml de tutorial html the-e-factory  import lxml builder as lb from lxml import etree  nstext    new story  story   lb E Asset    lb E Attribute nstext  name  Name   act  set      lb E Relation lb E Asset idref  Scope 767                name  Scope   act  set        print  story  n   etree tostring story  pretty print True    Output   story   lt Asset gt     lt Attribute name  Name  act  set  gt new story lt  Attribute gt     lt Relation name  Scope  act  set  gt       lt Asset idref  Scope 767   gt     lt  Relation gt   lt  Asset gt

User · Answer

I ve tried a some of the solutions in this thread  and unfortunately  I found some of them to be cumbersome  i e  requiring excessive effort when doing something non-trivial  and inelegant  Consequently  I thought I d throw my preferred solution  web2py HTML helper objects  into the mix    First  install the the standalone web2py module   pip install web2py   Unfortunately  the above installs an extremely antiquated version of web2py  but it ll be good enough for this example  The updated source is here   Import web2py HTML helper objects documented here   from gluon html import     Now  you can use web2py helpers to generate XML HTML   words     this    is    my    item    list     helper function create item   lambda idx  word  LI word   id    item  s    idx   class    item     create the HTML items    create item idx  word  for idx word in enumerate words   ul   UL items   id    my item list    class    item list   my div   DIV ul   class    container     gt  gt  gt  my div   lt gluon html DIV object at 0x00000000039DEAC8 gt    gt  gt  gt  my div xml     I added the line breaks for clarity  lt div class  container  gt      lt ul class  item list  id  my item list  gt         lt li class  item  id  item 0  gt this lt  li gt         lt li class  item  id  item 1  gt is lt  li gt         lt li class  item  id  item 2  gt my lt  li gt         lt li class  item  id  item 3  gt item lt  li gt         lt li class  item  id  item 4  gt list lt  li gt      lt  ul gt   lt  div gt

User · Answer

ElementTree is a good module for reading xml and writing too e g   from xml etree ElementTree import Element  SubElement  tostring  root   Element  root   child   SubElement root   child   child text    I am a child   print tostring root     Output    lt root gt  lt child gt I am a child lt  child gt  lt  root gt    See this tutorial for more details and how to pretty print   Alternatively if your XML is simple  do not underestimate the power of string formatting     xmlTemplate       lt root gt       lt person gt           lt name gt   name s lt  name gt           lt address gt   address s lt  address gt        lt  person gt   lt  root gt      data     name   anurag    address   Pune  india   print xmlTemplate data   Output    lt root gt       lt person gt           lt name gt anurag lt  name gt           lt address gt Pune  india lt  address gt        lt  person gt   lt  root gt    You can use string Template or some template engine too  for complex formatting

[python] Best way to generate xml?

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