xml to json converter
typetools
instant, client-side type converter • 0ms network latency
{
"@id": "usr_98a7c2f1",
"@active": true,
"username": "alex_dev",
"email": "[email protected]",
"score": 98.4,
"role": [
"admin",
"editor"
],
"metadata": {
"lastLogin": "2026-10-15T12:00:00Z",
"ipAddress": "192.168.1.1"
}
}step-by-step integration guide
technical specification differences & end-to-end conversion workflow
Reconciling XML's Document-Centric DOM with JSON's Key-Value Data Model
Extensible Markup Language (XML) and JSON were designed with fundamentally different structural primitives. An XML element can simultaneously contain named attributes (<item id="42" status="active">), child elements, mixed text nodes, XML namespaces (xmlns:soap), and <![CDATA[...]]> sections. Furthermore, XML does not have an explicit array syntax: a list of items is simply represented by repeating child elements with the same tag name under a parent node. When an XML parent contains only a single child element (<items><item>A</item></items>), a naive converter emits a single JSON object instead of an array, breaking client code that expects a list.
DOM Tree Traversal, Attribute Prefixing, and Array Coalescing
Our XML-to-JSON engine parses raw XML markup into a strict Document Object Model (DOM) AST inside your browser without external network calls. As the serializer walks the DOM tree, XML attributes on each element are preserved using a clean prefix convention (@_attributeName) so they never collide with child element tags of the same name. Mixed text content inside an element with attributes is assigned to a dedicated #text key, and <![CDATA[...]]> blocks are unwrapped directly into properly escaped JSON strings. Whenever the parser encounters multiple sibling elements sharing the same tag name, it automatically coalesces them into a unified JSON array while optionally inferring primitive numeric and boolean types for leaf text nodes.
frequently asked questions
common developer questions answered
q:How are XML attributes (like <user id="10" role="admin">) preserved in the JSON output?
Attributes are mapped as keys prefixed with '@_' (such as '@_id' and '@_role') inside the corresponding JSON object, ensuring they never overwrite a child element with the same name.
q:How does the converter handle repeated XML child elements with the same tag name?
When multiple sibling elements share the same tag name under a parent node, the AST walker automatically groups them into a single JSON array under that tag key.
q:Are XML CDATA sections and HTML entities decoded properly?
Yes. Raw text inside <![CDATA[...]]> blocks and standard XML entities (&, <, >, ") are cleanly decoded and serialized as valid UTF-8 JSON strings.