XML2JSON – Command line tool for converting XML to JSON

XML2JSON is a simple command line tool for converting XML files to JSON. It uses the JSON.NET library.

Usage:

XML2JSON.exe input.xml output.json

Example Input:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<catalog>
   <book id="bk101">
      <author>Gambardella, Matthew</author>
      <title>XML Developer's Guide</title>
      <genre>Computer</genre>
      <price>44.95</price>
      <publish_date>2000-10-01</publish_date>
      <description>An in-depth look at creating applications 
      with XML.</description>
   </book>
   <book id="bk102">
      <author>Ralls, Kim</author>
      <title>Midnight Rain</title>
      <genre>Fantasy</genre>
      <price>5.95</price>
      <publish_date>2000-12-16</publish_date>
      <description>A former architect battles corporate zombies, 
      an evil sorceress, and her own childhood to become queen 
      of the world.</description>
   </book>
</catalog>

Example Output:

{
  "catalog": {
    "book": [
      {
        "id": "bk101",
        "author": "Gambardella, Matthew",
        "title": "XML Developer's Guide",
        "genre": "Computer",
        "price": "44.95",
        "publish_date": "2000-10-01",
        "description": "An in-depth look at creating applications \r\n      with XML."
      },
      {
        "id": "bk102",
        "author": "Ralls, Kim",
        "title": "Midnight Rain",
        "genre": "Fantasy",
        "price": "5.95",
        "publish_date": "2000-12-16",
        "description": "A former architect battles corporate zombies, \r\n      an evil sorceress, and her own childhood to become queen \r\n      of the world."
      }
    ]
  }
}

Code

This is the code for the program:

	using System.IO;
	using System.Linq;
	using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
	using System.Xml;
	using Newtonsoft.Json;
	using Formatting = Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting;
	namespace XML2JSON
	{
	class Program
	{
	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
	var inputXml = args[0];
	var outputJson = args[1];
	var doc = new XmlDocument();
	doc.Load(inputXml);
	//strip comments from xml
	var comments = doc.SelectNodes("//comment()");
	if (comments != null)
	{
	foreach (var node in comments.Cast<XmlNode>())
	{
	if (node.ParentNode != null)
	node.ParentNode.RemoveChild(node);
	}
	}
	var rawJsonText = JsonConvert.SerializeXmlNode(doc.DocumentElement, Formatting.Indented);
	//strip the @ and # characters
	var strippedJsonText = Regex.Replace(rawJsonText, "(?<=\")(@)(?!.*\":\\s )", string.Empty, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
	strippedJsonText = Regex.Replace(strippedJsonText, "(?<=\")(#)(?!.*\":\\s )", string.Empty, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
	//save out
	using (var outputFileStream = File.Open(outputJson, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
	{
	using (var outputStreamWriter = new StreamWriter(outputFileStream))
	{
	outputStreamWriter.Write(strippedJsonText);
	outputStreamWriter.Flush();
	outputStreamWriter.Close();
	}
	}
	}
	}
	}

view raw Program.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The full .NET solution is available here: https://github.com/SneakyBrian/XML2JSON