How to convert JSON to XML or XML to JSON

Question

I started to use Json NET to convert a string in JSON format to object or viceversa  I am not sure in the Json NET framework  is it possible to convert a string in JSON to XML format and viceversa

User · Answer

Yes  you can do it  I do  but Be aware of some paradoxes when converting  and handle appropriately  You cannot automatically conform to all interface possibilities  and there is limited built-in support in controlling the conversion- many JSON structures and values cannot automatically be converted both ways  Keep in mind I am using the default settings with Newtonsoft JSON library and MS XML library  so your mileage may vary  XML - gt  JSON  All data becomes string data  for example you will always get  quot false quot  not false or  quot 0 quot  not 0  Obviously JavaScript treats these differently in certain cases  Children elements can become nested-object    OR nested-array              depending if there is only one or more than one XML child-element  You would consume these two differently in JavaScript  etc  Different examples of XML conforming to the same schema can produce actually different JSON structures this way  You can add the attribute json Array  true  to your element to workaround this in some  but not necessarily all  cases  Your XML must be fairly well-formed  I have noticed it doesn t need to perfectly conform to W3C standard  but 1  you must have a root element and 2  you cannot start element names with numbers are two of the enforced XML standards I have found when using Newtonsoft and MS libraries  In older versions  Blank elements do not convert to JSON  They are ignored  A blank element does not become  quot element quot  null  A new update changes how null can be handled  Thanks to Jon Story for pointing it out   https   www newtonsoft com json help html T Newtonsoft Json NullValueHandling htm JSON - gt  XML  You need a top level object that will convert to a root XML element or the parser will fail  Your object names cannot start with a number  as they cannot be converted to elements  XML is technically even more strict than this  but I can  get away  with breaking some of the other element naming rules   Please feel free to mention any other issues you have noticed  I have developed my own custom routines for preparing and cleaning the strings as I convert back and forth  Your situation may or may not call for prep cleanup  As StaxMan mentions  your situation may actually require that you convert between objects   this could entail appropriate interfaces and a bunch of case statements etc to handle the caveats I mention above

User · Answer

For convert JSON string to XML try this       public string JsonToXML string json                XDocument xmlDoc   new XDocument new XDeclaration  1 0    utf-8                 XElement root   new XElement  Root            root Name    Result            var dataTable   JsonConvert DeserializeObject lt DataTable gt  json           root Add                   from row in dataTable AsEnumerable                    select new XElement  Record                                        from column in dataTable Columns Cast lt DataColumn gt                                         select new XElement column ColumnName  row column                                                                     xmlDoc Add root           return xmlDoc ToString            For convert XML to JSON try this        public string XmlToJson string xml               XmlDocument doc   new XmlDocument           doc LoadXml xml           string jsonText   JsonConvert SerializeXmlNode doc          return jsonText

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Cinchoo ETL - an open source library available to do the conversion of Xml to JSON easily with few lines of code  Xml -  JSON   using  var p   new ChoXmlReader  sample xml          using  var w   new ChoJSONWriter  sample json                  w Write p             JSON -  Xml   using  var p   new ChoJsonReader  sample json          using  var w   new ChoXmlWriter  sample xml                  w Write p             Checkout CodeProject article for some additional help   Disclaimer  I m the author of this library

User · Answer

Yes  Using the JsonConvert class which contains helper methods for this precise purpose      To convert an XML node contained in string xml into a JSON string    XmlDocument doc   new XmlDocument    doc LoadXml xml   string jsonText   JsonConvert SerializeXmlNode doc       To convert JSON text contained in string json into an XML node XmlDocument doc   JsonConvert DeserializeXmlNode json     Documentation here  Converting between JSON and XML with Json NET

User · Answer

You can do these conversions also with the  NET Framework   JSON to XML  by using System Runtime Serialization Json  var xml   XDocument Load JsonReaderWriterFactory CreateJsonReader      Encoding ASCII GetBytes jsonString   new XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas        XML to JSON  by using System Web Script Serialization  var json   new JavaScriptSerializer   Serialize GetXmlData XElement Parse xmlString      private static Dictionary lt string  object gt  GetXmlData XElement xml        var attr   xml Attributes   ToDictionary d   gt  d Name LocalName  d   gt   object d Value       if  xml HasElements  attr Add   value   xml Elements   Select e   gt  GetXmlData e         else if   xml IsEmpty  attr Add   value   xml Value        return new Dictionary lt string  object gt      xml Name LocalName  attr

User · Answer

I have used the below methods to convert the JSON to XML  List  lt Item gt  items  public void LoadJsonAndReadToXML       using StreamReader r   new StreamReader    E  Json overiddenhotelranks json          string json   r ReadToEnd        items   JsonConvert DeserializeObject  lt List lt Item gt  gt   json       ReadToXML            And   public void ReadToXML       try       var xEle   new XElement  Items         from item in items select new XElement  Item           new XElement  mhid   item mhid           new XElement  hotelName   item hotelName           new XElement  destination   item destination           new XElement  destinationID   item destinationID           new XElement  rank   item rank           new XElement  toDisplayOnFod   item toDisplayOnFod           new XElement  comment   item comment           new XElement  Destinationcode   item Destinationcode           new XElement  LoadDate   item LoadDate                 xEle Save  E   employees xml        Console WriteLine  Converted to XML        catch  Exception ex        Console WriteLine ex Message         Console ReadLine        I have used the class named Item to represent the elements  public class Item     public int mhid   get  set      public string hotelName   get  set      public string destination   get  set      public int destinationID   get  set      public int rank   get  set      public int toDisplayOnFod   get  set      public string comment   get  set      public string Destinationcode   get  set      public string LoadDate   get  set        It works

User · Answer

Thanks for David Brown s answer  In my case of JSON Net 3 5  the convert methods are under the JsonConvert static class   XmlNode myXmlNode   JsonConvert DeserializeXmlNode myJsonString      is node not note    or  DeserilizeXmlNode myJsonString   root       if myJsonString does not have a root string jsonString   JsonConvert SerializeXmlNode myXmlNode

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I searched for a long time to find alternative code to the accepted solution in the hopes of not using an external assembly project  I came up with the following thanks to the source code of the DynamicJson project   public XmlDocument JsonToXML string json        XmlDocument doc   new XmlDocument         using  var reader   JsonReaderWriterFactory CreateJsonReader Encoding UTF8 GetBytes json   XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas Max                 XElement xml   XElement Load reader           doc LoadXml xml ToString                return doc      Note  I wanted an XmlDocument rather than an XElement for xPath purposes  Also  this code obviously only goes from JSON to XML  there are various ways to do the opposite

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Here is a simple snippet that converts a XmlNode  recursively  into a hashtable  and groups multiple instances of the same child into an array  as an ArrayList   The Hashtable is usually accepted to convert into JSON by most of the JSON libraries   protected object convert XmlNode root       Hashtable obj   new Hashtable        for int i 0 n root ChildNodes Count i lt n i             object result   null          XmlNode current   root ChildNodes Item i            if current NodeType    XmlNodeType Text              result   convert current           else              int resultInt              double resultFloat              bool resultBoolean              if Int32 TryParse current Value  out resultInt   return resultInt              if Double TryParse current Value  out resultFloat   return resultFloat              if Boolean TryParse current Value  out resultBoolean   return resultBoolean              return current Value                     if obj current Name     null              obj current Name    result          else if obj current Name  GetType   Equals typeof ArrayList                  ArrayList obj current Name   Add result           else              ArrayList collision   new ArrayList                collision Add obj current Name                collision Add result               obj current Name    collision                       return obj

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Try this function   I just wrote it and haven t had much of a chance to test it  but my preliminary tests are promising   public static XmlDocument JsonToXml string json        XmlNode newNode   null      XmlNode appendToNode   null      XmlDocument returnXmlDoc   new XmlDocument        returnXmlDoc LoadXml   lt Document   gt         XmlNode rootNode   returnXmlDoc SelectSingleNode  Document        appendToNode   rootNode       string   arrElementData      string   arrElements   json Split   r        foreach  string element in arrElements                string processElement   element Replace   r       Replace   n       Replace   t       Trim            if   processElement IndexOf       gt  -1    processElement IndexOf       gt  -1   amp  amp  appendToNode    rootNode                        appendToNode   appendToNode ParentNode                    else if  processElement IndexOf       gt  -1                        processElement   processElement Replace          Replace          Replace           Trim                newNode   returnXmlDoc CreateElement processElement               appendToNode AppendChild newNode               appendToNode   newNode                    else if  processElement IndexOf       gt  -1  amp  amp  processElement IndexOf       gt  -1                        processElement   processElement Replace          Replace          Replace           Trim                newNode   returnXmlDoc CreateElement processElement               appendToNode AppendChild newNode               appendToNode   newNode                    else                       if  processElement IndexOf       gt  -1                                arrElementData   processElement Replace              Replace            Replace           Split                       newNode   returnXmlDoc CreateElement arrElementData 0                    for  int i   1  i  lt  arrElementData Length  i                                          newNode InnerText    arrElementData i                                      appendToNode AppendChild newNode                                      return returnXmlDoc

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Here is the full c  code to convert xml to json  public static class JSon   public static string XmlToJSON string xml        XmlDocument doc   new XmlDocument        doc LoadXml xml        return XmlToJSON doc     public static string XmlToJSON XmlDocument xmlDoc        StringBuilder sbJSON   new StringBuilder        sbJSON Append            XmlToJSONnode sbJSON  xmlDoc DocumentElement  true       sbJSON Append           return sbJSON ToString           XmlToJSONnode   Output an XmlElement  possibly as part of a higher array private static void XmlToJSONnode StringBuilder sbJSON  XmlElement node  bool showNodeName        if  showNodeName          sbJSON Append        SafeJSON node Name                 sbJSON Append              Build a sorted list of key-value pairs         where   key is case-sensitive nodeName                 value is an ArrayList of string or XmlElement         so that we know whether the nodeName is an array or not      SortedList lt string  object gt  childNodeNames   new SortedList lt string  object gt              Add in all node attributes     if  node Attributes    null          foreach  XmlAttribute attr in node Attributes              StoreChildNode childNodeNames  attr Name  attr InnerText            Add in all nodes     foreach  XmlNode cnode in node ChildNodes                if  cnode is XmlText              StoreChildNode childNodeNames   value   cnode InnerText           else if  cnode is XmlElement              StoreChildNode childNodeNames  cnode Name  cnode                 Now output all stored info     foreach  string childname in childNodeNames Keys                List lt object gt  alChild    List lt object gt  childNodeNames childname           if  alChild Count    1              OutputNode childname  alChild 0   sbJSON  true           else                       sbJSON Append         SafeJSON childname                           foreach  object Child in alChild                  OutputNode childname  Child  sbJSON  false               sbJSON Remove sbJSON Length - 2  2               sbJSON Append                              sbJSON Remove sbJSON Length - 2  2       sbJSON Append               StoreChildNode  Store data associated with each nodeName                     so that we know whether the nodeName is an array or not  private static void StoreChildNode SortedList lt string  object gt  childNodeNames  string nodeName  object nodeValue           Pre-process contraction of XmlElement-s     if  nodeValue is XmlElement                   Convert   lt aa gt  lt  aa gt  into  aa  null                      lt aa gt xx lt  aa gt  into  aa   xx          XmlNode cnode    XmlNode nodeValue          if  cnode Attributes Count    0                        XmlNodeList children   cnode ChildNodes              if  children Count    0                  nodeValue   null              else if  children Count    1  amp  amp   children 0  is XmlText                   nodeValue     XmlText  children 0    InnerText                         Add nodeValue to ArrayList associated with each nodeName        If nodeName doesn t exist then add it     List lt object gt  ValuesAL       if  childNodeNames ContainsKey nodeName                 ValuesAL    List lt object gt  childNodeNames nodeName             else               ValuesAL   new List lt object gt             childNodeNames nodeName    ValuesAL            ValuesAL Add nodeValue      private static void OutputNode string childname  object alChild  StringBuilder sbJSON  bool showNodeName        if  alChild    null                if  showNodeName              sbJSON Append        SafeJSON childname                     sbJSON Append  null              else if  alChild is string                if  showNodeName              sbJSON Append        SafeJSON childname                     string sChild    string alChild          sChild   sChild Trim            sbJSON Append        SafeJSON sChild                     else         XmlToJSONnode sbJSON   XmlElement alChild  showNodeName       sbJSON Append              Make a string safe for JSON private static string SafeJSON string sIn        StringBuilder sbOut   new StringBuilder sIn Length       foreach  char ch in sIn                if  Char IsControl ch     ch                                int ich    int ch              sbOut Append    u    ich ToString  x4                 continue                    else if  ch            ch            ch                               sbOut Append                          sbOut Append ch             return sbOut ToString           To convert a given XML string to JSON  simply call XmlToJSON   function as below   string xml     lt menu id   file   value   File   gt                      lt popup gt                       lt menuitem value   New   onclick   CreateNewDoc       gt                       lt menuitem value   Open   onclick   OpenDoc       gt                       lt menuitem value   Close   onclick   CloseDoc       gt                     lt  popup gt                   lt  menu gt     string json   JSON XmlToJSON xml      json      menu     id    file    popup      menuitem       onclick    CreateNewDoc      value    New       onclick    OpenDoc      value    Open       onclick    CloseDoc      value    Close          value    File

User · Answer

I did like David Brown said but I got the following exception     exception   There are multiple root elements  Line   position     System Xml XmlException   One solution would be to modify the XML file with a root element but that is not always necessary and for an XML stream it might not be possible either  My solution below   var path   Path GetFullPath Path Combine Environment CurrentDirectory          App Data     var directoryInfo   new DirectoryInfo path   var fileInfos   directoryInfo GetFiles    xml     foreach  var fileInfo in fileInfos        XmlDocument doc   new XmlDocument        XmlReaderSettings settings   new XmlReaderSettings        settings ConformanceLevel   ConformanceLevel Fragment       using  XmlReader reader   XmlReader Create fileInfo FullName  settings                 while  reader Read                          if  reader NodeType    XmlNodeType Element                                var node   doc ReadNode reader                   string json   JsonConvert SerializeXmlNode node                                     Example XML that generates the error    lt parent gt       lt child gt          Text      lt  child gt   lt  parent gt   lt parent gt       lt child gt           lt grandchild gt              Text          lt  grandchild gt           lt grandchild gt              Text          lt  grandchild gt       lt  child gt       lt child gt          Text      lt  child gt   lt  parent gt

User · Answer

I m not sure there is point in such conversion  yes  many do it  but mostly to force a square peg through round hole  -- there is structural impedance mismatch  and conversion is lossy  So I would recommend against such format-to-format transformations   But if you do it  first convert from json to object  then from object to xml  and vice versa for reverse direction   Doing direct transformation leads to ugly output  loss of information  or possibly both

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