json2xml 5.1.0

Simple Python Library to convert JSON to XML

json2xml is a Python library that allows you to convert JSON data into XML format. It’s simple, efficient, and easy to use.

Documentation: https://json2xml.readthedocs.io.

The library was initially dependent on the dict2xml project, but it has now been integrated into json2xml itself. This has led to cleaner code, the addition of types and tests, and overall improved performance.

Architecture Diagram

Features

json2xml supports the following features:

• Conversion from a json string to XML

• Conversion from a json file to XML

• Conversion from an API that emits json data to XML

Usage

You can use the json2xml library in the following ways:

from json2xml import json2xml
from json2xml.utils import readfromurl, readfromstring, readfromjson

# Convert JSON data from a URL to XML
data = readfromurl("https://api.publicapis.org/entries")
print(json2xml.Json2xml(data).to_xml())

# Convert a JSON string to XML
data = readfromstring(
    '{"login":"mojombo","id":1,"avatar_url":"https://avatars0.githubusercontent.com/u/1?v=4"}'
)
print(json2xml.Json2xml(data).to_xml())

# Convert a JSON file to XML
data = readfromjson("examples/licht.json")
print(json2xml.Json2xml(data).to_xml())

Custom Wrappers and Indentation

By default, a wrapper all and pretty True is set. However, you can easily change this in your code like this:

from json2xml import json2xml
from json2xml.utils import readfromurl, readfromstring, readfromjson

data = readfromstring(
    '{"login":"mojombo","id":1,"avatar_url":"https://avatars0.githubusercontent.com/u/1?v=4"}'
)
print(json2xml.Json2xml(data, wrapper="all", pretty=True).to_xml())

Outputs this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<all>
  <login type="str">mojombo</login>
  <id type="int">1</id>
  <avatar_url type="str">https://avatars0.githubusercontent.com/u/1?v=4</avatar_url>
</all>

Omit List item

Assume the following json input

{
  "my_items": [
    { "my_item": { "id": 1 } },
    { "my_item": { "id": 2 } }
  ],
  "my_str_items": ["a", "b"]
}

By default, items in an array are wrapped in <item></item>.

Default output:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<all>
  <my_items type="list">
    <item type="dict">
      <my_item type="dict">
        <id type="int">1</id>
      </my_item>
    </item>
    <item type="dict">
      <my_item type="dict">
        <id type="int">2</id>
      </my_item>
    </item>
  </my_items>
  <my_str_items type="list">
    <item type="str">a</item>
    <item type="str">b</item>
  </my_str_items>
  <empty type="list"/>
</all>

However, you can change this behavior using the item_wrap property like this:

from json2xml import json2xml
from json2xml.utils import readfromurl, readfromstring, readfromjson

data = readfromstring('{"my_items":[{"my_item":{"id":1} },{"my_item":{"id":2} }],"my_str_items":["a","b"]}')
print(json2xml.Json2xml(data, item_wrap=False).to_xml())

Outputs this:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<all>
  <my_items type="list">
    <my_item type="dict">
      <id type="int">1</id>
    </my_item>
    <my_item type="dict">
      <id type="int">2</id>
    </my_item>
  </my_items>
  <my_str_items type="str">a</my_str_items>
  <my_str_items type="str">b</my_str_items>
</all>

Optional Attribute Type Support

You can also specify if the output XML needs to have type specified or not. Here is the usage:

from json2xml import json2xml
from json2xml.utils import readfromurl, readfromstring, readfromjson

data = readfromstring(
    '{"login":"mojombo","id":1,"avatar_url":"https://avatars0.githubusercontent.com/u/1?v=4"}'
)
print(json2xml.Json2xml(data, wrapper="all", pretty=True, attr_type=False).to_xml())

Outputs this:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<all>
  <login>mojombo</login>
  <id>1</id>
  <avatar_url>https://avatars0.githubusercontent.com/u/1?v=4</avatar_url>
</all>

The methods are simple and easy to use and there are also checks inside of code to exit cleanly in case any of the input(file, string or API URL) returns invalid JSON.

Development

This project uses modern Python development practices. Here’s how to set up a development environment:

# Create and activate virtual environment (using uv - recommended)
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
uv pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
uv pip install -e .

Running Tests and Checks

We provide several ways to run tests and quality checks:

Using Make (recommended):

make test          # Run tests with coverage
make lint          # Run linting with ruff
make typecheck     # Run type checking with mypy
make check-all     # Run all checks (lint, typecheck, test)

Using the development script:

python dev.py          # Run all checks
python dev.py test     # Run tests only
python dev.py lint     # Run linting only
python dev.py typecheck # Run type checking only

Using tools directly:

pytest --cov=json2xml --cov-report=term -xvs tests -n auto
ruff check json2xml tests
mypy json2xml tests

Help and Support to maintain this project

• You can sponsor my work for this plugin here: https://github.com/sponsors/vinitkumar/