XML to JSON Converter
Convert XML data to JSON format online for free. Handles elements, attributes, namespaces, and nested structures. All processing runs in your browser for complete privacy.
How to Use
Converting XML to JSON is essential when migrating from legacy SOAP services to modern REST APIs, or when consuming XML data in JavaScript applications. This free online converter transforms any well-formed XML document into a clean JSON structure. Here is how to use it:
- Paste your XML into the input area. The tool accepts any well-formed XML document, including SOAP responses, RSS feeds, configuration files, SVG fragments, and custom XML schemas.
- Click "Convert" to transform the XML into JSON. The converter uses the browser's built-in DOMParser to parse the XML and then recursively builds a JSON representation of the document tree.
- Review the JSON output in the right panel. The output is formatted with proper indentation for easy reading. Elements become JSON object keys, text content becomes string values, and attributes are included with a distinguishing prefix.
- Copy the result by clicking the copy button. The JSON is ready to use in your application, API request, or data pipeline.
Understanding the Conversion Process
XML and JSON have fundamentally different data models, so understanding the mapping rules helps you work with the output effectively:
- Elements become object keys — Each XML element name becomes a key in the JSON object. Child elements are nested as properties of their parent.
- Repeated elements become arrays — When multiple sibling elements share the same name, they are grouped into a JSON array. This correctly models the common XML pattern of repeated child elements.
- Text content becomes string values — The text content of an XML element becomes the string value of the corresponding JSON property. Mixed content (text interleaved with child elements) is preserved with a special text key.
- Attributes are prefixed — XML attributes are converted to JSON properties with a prefix to distinguish them from child elements. This prevents naming conflicts when an element has both an attribute and a child with the same name.
About This Tool
XML to JSON conversion is the process of transforming an XML document's hierarchical structure into an equivalent JSON representation. This operation is fundamental in modern web development because JSON has largely replaced XML as the standard data interchange format for web APIs, while vast amounts of existing data, services, and infrastructure continue to use XML. The conversion bridges these two worlds.
This tool uses the browser's native DOMParser API to parse XML input into a Document Object Model (DOM) tree. The DOMParser is the same XML parser used by every web browser for processing XHTML, SVG, MathML, and other XML-based web standards. It handles well-formed XML documents of any complexity, including namespace declarations, processing instructions, comments, CDATA sections, and entity references.
The XML-to-JSON Mapping Challenge
Unlike JSON-to-XML conversion, which has relatively straightforward mapping rules, converting XML to JSON presents several challenges. XML has features with no direct JSON equivalent: attributes (metadata on elements), namespaces (scoping for element and attribute names), mixed content (text and elements interleaved), processing instructions, comments, and CDATA sections. Different XML-to-JSON conventions handle these features differently.
The most widely adopted convention, sometimes called the "BadgerFish" or "Parker" convention, maps elements to JSON keys, text content to string values, attributes to prefixed keys, and repeated elements to arrays. This convention provides a lossless round-trip for most practical XML documents while producing readable JSON output. However, some edge cases (like mixed content nodes or processing instructions) require additional conventions that may vary between implementations.
XML Parsing in the Browser
The DOMParser API constructs an in-memory tree of the entire XML document. For small to medium documents (under 10MB), this is efficient and fast. The parser validates well-formedness: every opening tag must have a corresponding closing tag, attribute values must be quoted, and special characters must be properly escaped. If the XML input is malformed, DOMParser returns a document containing a parsererror element that describes the problem.
After parsing, the converter walks the DOM tree recursively, building JSON objects and arrays as it encounters elements and their children. This recursive approach naturally handles arbitrary nesting depth and preserves the complete document structure in the JSON output. All processing happens synchronously in the browser's main thread using standard Web APIs.
Why Use This Tool
XML to JSON conversion is one of the most frequent data transformation tasks in software development. As the industry continues to migrate from XML-centric to JSON-centric architectures, the need for reliable conversion grows. Here are the primary use cases:
- Consuming SOAP services in modern apps — JavaScript and TypeScript applications work natively with JSON. When calling a SOAP API that returns XML, converting the response to JSON allows you to work with the data using standard JavaScript object operations instead of DOM traversal methods.
- Processing RSS and Atom feeds — RSS feeds are XML documents. Converting them to JSON makes it straightforward to display feed entries in React, Preact, or Vue components, or to store them in JSON-based databases like MongoDB or Firebase.
- Migrating legacy systems — Organizations moving from XML-based middleware to REST microservices need to convert stored XML data to JSON. This tool helps validate the expected JSON structure before writing automated migration scripts.
- Configuration file conversion — Converting XML configuration files (like Maven pom.xml, Spring application context, or .NET web.config) to JSON helps when migrating to tools that use JSON configuration.
- Data analysis and visualization — JSON is the native data format for most modern data visualization libraries (D3.js, Chart.js, Plotly). Converting XML datasets to JSON is often the first step in a data analysis pipeline.
Privacy and Security
This XML to JSON converter runs entirely in your browser using the native DOMParser API. No data is sent to any server, stored remotely, or logged by any system. This makes it safe for converting XML documents containing customer records, medical data, financial transactions, or any information subject to privacy regulations. Your XML data stays on your device throughout the entire conversion process.