XML ↔ JSON

2. How to Convert XML to JSON in Four Steps

Here is how to convert XML to JSON with the tool above. There is no account and no sign-up; it is an xml to json online free tool in the plain sense.

1. Add your XML. Paste it into the input box, or drop a .xml, .json or .txt file onto the area marked “Drop a file or paste below”; that is the whole job when you need to convert XML file to JSON rather than pasted text.
2. Choose the conversion. Pick XML → JSON in the Conversion menu. The same menu offers JSON → XML, Pretty-print XML and Minify XML.
3. Decide on typing. Leave Convert numbers/booleans ticked to get real JSON numbers, true, false and null; untick it to keep every value as a string.
4. Convert, then copy or download. Press Convert. The result appears in the output box with Copy and Download buttons; the download is named data.json.

3. How XML Attributes Are Represented in JSON: The Exact Rules

If you are asking how are XML attributes represented in JSON, here the answer is fixed and published. This is the tool’s sample document beside its real output:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<order id="42">
  <customer>Ayesha</customer>
  <item sku="A1" qty="2">Notebook</item>
  <item sku="B7" qty="1">Pen</item>
</order>

{
  "order": {
    "@id": 42,
    "customer": "Ayesha",
    "item": [
      { "@sku": "A1", "@qty": 2, "#text": "Notebook" },
      { "@sku": "B7", "@qty": 1, "#text": "Pen" }
    ]
  }
}

• The root element becomes the single top-level key (here, order).
• Attributes become keys prefixed with @, so id="42" becomes "@id". Nothing is dropped, which is why people searching xml to json losing attributes end up here.
• Text goes under #text only when the element also has attributes or child elements. An element with nothing but text, like customer, becomes a plain value.
• Repeated siblings become an array; a single child stays an object.
• Namespace prefixes stay in the key: an element written ns:c becomes the key "ns:c". That is the whole story for xml to json with attributes and namespaces.
• CDATA is kept as text. Comments, processing instructions, the XML declaration and the DOCTYPE are dropped.

4. JSON to XML, Pretty-Print and Minify

As a json to xml converter, the tool reverses the same conventions. Here is how to convert JSON to XML: paste the JSON, choose JSON → XML, pick a root name and press Convert.

• An object with exactly one key uses that key as the root element.
• Any other object, or a top-level array, is wrapped in the root chosen in Root element name: root, data, document or items. That is the answer to the json array to xml root element question: each array entry is written as an <item> inside it.
• Keys starting with @ become attributes and #text becomes element text.
• The output is indented two spaces, begins with a UTF-8 XML declaration, and downloads as data.xml. Invalid JSON is reported with “Invalid JSON” and the reason.

The tool doubles as an xml formatter. Choose Pretty-print XML for an xml pretty print online result: a single-line blob comes back indented two spaces per level with text trimmed. Minify XML writes the document without adding indentation. Be aware that this xml minify mode keeps whitespace already sitting between tags rather than stripping it, and both modes drop the DOCTYPE.

5. Fixing the Common XML to JSON Problems

• Xml to json single element not array: An order with one item gives an object; with two it gives an array. This tool cannot force a tag to always be an array, so in your code wrap a lone object in an array before looping.
• Xml to json numbers converted to strings: Tick Convert numbers/booleans and plain decimal numbers, true, false and null become real JSON types. Untick it if you want everything as text.
• Xml to json leading zeros removed: Not here. A value such as 007, a postcode or an account ID stays a string even with typing on, so nothing is silently rewritten.
• Xml to json #text. The #text key appears only where an element has both text and attributes or children. When an element mixes text and tags, all its text is joined into one #text and the original ordering is lost.
• Json to xml invalid element name: JSON keys with spaces or a leading digit are written through unchanged, which produces invalid XML. Rename those keys in the JSON first; the tool does not sanitise them.

6. SOAP Responses, RSS Feeds, Sitemaps and Other Real Files

• SOAP response xml to json: Paste the whole envelope. Prefixed names such as soap:Envelope and soap:Body survive as keys, so your code walks down to the payload using those exact names.
• RSS feed xml to json: Save or copy the feed, then paste or drop it in. Each item becomes an array entry once there are two or more. The tool does not fetch URLs, so it cannot pull a live feed for you.
• Sitemap xml to json: The url entries become an array of objects with loc and lastmod values, easy to loop over in a link check. The namespace declaration on urlset comes through as an @xmlns key, and dates stay strings.
• Android strings xml to json: Each string element carries a @name and a #text, so the key and translation sit side by side, ready to reshape for a translation workflow.
• Maven pom xml to json: Two or more dependencies become an array of objects with groupId, artifactId and version; a POM with a single dependency gives one object instead. Comments in the POM are dropped.

Need a different format next? For xml to yaml, convert here to JSON, then paste the result into the YAML to JSON converter and switch it to JSON to YAML. For a spreadsheet, turn a flat JSON array into rows with the CSV to JSON converter, then finish in the spreadsheet converter. To see what changed between two exports, the diff checker compares them line by line.

7. Why Cortexis Is the Best Free XML JSON Converter

Plenty of pages offer an xml json converter. Few tell you what the output will look like. Here is what is different.

It is one of a wider set of free developer and document tools built on the same terms.

8. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)