xmldom

What is xmldom?

The xmldom npm package is a pure JavaScript W3C standard-based (XML DOM Level 2 Core) DOMParser and XMLSerializer module. It allows users to parse XML data into a DOM tree structure and serialize DOM trees back into XML. This package is particularly useful for server-side applications where DOM manipulation is needed without a browser environment.

What are xmldom's main functionalities?

Parsing XML to DOM

This feature allows you to parse a string of XML into a DOM tree, enabling programmatic access and manipulation of the structure and content.

const { DOMParser } = require('xmldom');
const xmlString = '<root>Hello World</root>';
const doc = new DOMParser().parseFromString(xmlString, 'text/xml');
console.log(doc.documentElement.nodeName); // 'root'

Serializing DOM to XML

This feature enables you to take a DOM tree and serialize it back into a string of XML, useful for outputting modified XML data.

const { XMLSerializer } = require('xmldom');
const doc = new DOMParser().parseFromString('<root>Hello World</root>', 'text/xml');
const xmlString = new XMLSerializer().serializeToString(doc);
console.log(xmlString); // '<root>Hello World</root>'

Other packages similar to xmldom

libxmljs

libxmljs is a native library for parsing and manipulating XML. It offers faster performance due to its native implementation but requires compilation, which can be a downside compared to the pure JavaScript implementation of xmldom.

cheerio

cheerio is primarily used for web scraping and server-side manipulation of HTML. While it can handle XML and offers a jQuery-like syntax for manipulation, it's more tailored towards HTML content. Compared to xmldom, cheerio might be more user-friendly for those familiar with jQuery but less strict in terms of XML standards compliance.