XML to JSON Converter

About XML to JSON Converter

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) are two of the most widely used data interchange formats in software development. While XML has been the dominant format for decades in enterprise systems, SOAP web services, and configuration files, JSON has risen to prominence as the preferred format for REST APIs, modern web applications, and NoSQL databases. Converting between these two formats is a common task during API migration, system integration, and data processing workflows.

This converter transforms XML documents into clean, well-structured JSON objects using your browser's native DOMParser. XML elements become JSON keys, repeated elements with the same name are automatically converted into JSON arrays, and attributes are preserved with an @ prefix. The reverse conversion from JSON to XML produces properly indented, valid XML documents. All processing happens entirely in your browser -- no data is ever sent to a server, making it safe for sensitive or proprietary data.

When to Use XML vs JSON

Choose XML when you need document validation with schemas (XSD), mixed content with text and elements interleaved, namespace support for combining vocabularies from different sources, or compatibility with legacy enterprise systems that rely on SOAP or XML-RPC. XML is also better for document-centric data like HTML, SVG, and configuration files where comments and processing instructions matter.

Choose JSON when you are building REST APIs, working with JavaScript-heavy applications, storing data in NoSQL databases like MongoDB, or optimizing for payload size and parsing speed. JSON's lightweight syntax produces smaller payloads compared to XML's verbose tag-based structure, and it maps directly to native data structures in most programming languages without requiring a separate parsing step.

How This Converter Handles Edge Cases

XML-to-JSON conversion is not a trivial mapping because XML has features with no direct JSON equivalent -- attributes, mixed content, namespaces, and CDATA sections. This tool handles attributes by storing them as keys prefixed with @ (e.g., @id, @name). When an element contains both attributes and text content, the text is stored under a #text key. Repeated sibling elements with the same tag name are automatically grouped into JSON arrays. CDATA sections are treated as plain text content. Empty elements are represented as null in JSON.

FAQ

Q: Does this tool preserve XML attributes during conversion?
A: Yes. When the "Preserve attributes" option is enabled, XML attributes are converted to JSON keys prefixed with @. For example, <book id="1"> becomes {"@id": "1"} in JSON. You can disable this option to ignore attributes entirely.

Q: How are repeated XML elements handled?
A: When multiple sibling elements share the same tag name, they are automatically grouped into a JSON array. For example, <item>A</item><item>B</item> becomes {"item": ["A", "B"]}. This ensures the data structure correctly reflects the one-to-many relationship.

Q: Can I convert JSON back to XML?
A: Yes. Click the "JSON to XML" button to convert a JSON object into well-formatted XML. The converter handles nested objects, arrays, and attributes (keys prefixed with @) to produce valid XML output with proper indentation.

Q: Is my data safe when using this tool?
A: Absolutely. This tool runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript and the native DOMParser API. No data is sent to any server. Your XML and JSON content never leaves your device. You can verify this by checking your browser's network tab while using the tool.

Q: What XML features are not supported?
A: This converter handles elements, attributes, text content, CDATA sections, and nested structures. It does not preserve XML comments, processing instructions, DTD declarations, or namespace prefixes in the JSON output. For most data interchange and API migration scenarios, these features are not needed in the JSON representation.