Write easily readable XML in Python

Question

Is there any way other than creating a method myself to write XML using python which are easily readable? xMLFile.write(xmlDom.toxml()) does create proper xml but reading them is pretty difficult. I tried toprettyxml but doesn't seem like it does much. e.g. following is what I would consider a human readable xml:

<myroot>
    <ent1
        att1="val1"
        att2="val2"
        att3="val3"
    />
    <ent2>
        <ent3
            att1="val1"
            att2="val2"
        />
    </ent2>
</myroot>

Solutions summary from the below responses:
1) If you just need to occassionaly read it for debugging then instead of formatting the xml while writing use xmllint or an xml editor to read it. Or
2) Use a library like Beautiful Soup. Or
3) Write your own method

What, in your opinion, makes an XML file "readable"? The term is very ambiguous. — Oded
– Oded, Commented Apr 22, 2010 at 8:00
Apologies. Am trying to paste an example. Just need to sort out how to put in tab indentation using the markup. — dutch
– dutch, Commented Apr 22, 2010 at 8:05
Do you just want this for easier debugging? I find myself using the "xmllint" program, with the "--format" option to throw my output through when I want to read it. — Matt Gibson
– Matt Gibson, Commented Apr 22, 2010 at 8:08
Thanks for the formatting. I need the xml to be parseable as well. Basically the python script reads the xml and after modifying / adding a few nodes writes it back. The script is supposed to do this daily. — dutch
– dutch, Commented Apr 22, 2010 at 8:12
Matt, Yes just to read occassionally if there is an issue with the application. xmllint while taking care of newline does not quite do the job if there are say 10 attributes to a node. — dutch
– dutch, Commented Apr 22, 2010 at 8:18

Walter · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-22 08:52:41Z

6

print lxml.etree.tostring(root_node, pretty_print=True)

answered Apr 22, 2010 at 8:52

Walter

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Comments

PMN · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-10 19:22:20Z

1

If you are using elementalTree this code will work.

XMLtext= ET.tostringlist(root)
OutputStr=''
level=-1

for t in XMLtext:

    if t[0]=='<':
            level=level+1
    if t[0:2]=='</':
            #remove the added level because of '<'
        level=level-1

    if t[-1]=='"' or t[0]=='<' or t[-2:]=='/>':
        t="\n"+"    "*level+t 

    if t[-2:]=='/>' or t[level*4+1:level*4+3]=='</': #end of block 
        level=level-1

    if t[-1:]=='>':    
        t=t+'\n'


    OutputStr=OutputStr+t

f = open("test.xml", "w")
f.write(OutputStr)
f.close()

answered Sep 10, 2013 at 19:22

PMN

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:51:41Z

1

I think the best way to do it, using python included batteries is the given in this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1206856 .

import xml.dom.minidom

xml = xml.dom.minidom.parse(xml_fname) # or xml.dom.minidom.parseString(xml_string)
pretty_xml_as_string = xml.toprettyxml()

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:51

CommunityBot

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answered Apr 16, 2015 at 16:44

tenuki

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msw · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-22 08:08:30Z

0

Unfortunately, XML readability by humans was not a design goal. Contrariwise, BeautifulStoneSoup makes an effort to prettify XML. It isn't great, but it is better than nothing.

answered Apr 22, 2010 at 8:08

msw

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Comments

zoli2k · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-22 08:20:54Z

0

Write your own method for formatting the xml doc. For example this will produce the format of your example XML string:

rep={" ":" \n",
     "/>":"\n/>"}

outStr=xmlDom.toxml()

for k in rep:
        outStr=outStr.replace(k, rep[k])

answered Apr 22, 2010 at 8:20

zoli2k

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