Parse

Convert an XML string to an object.

By converting an XML string to an object, you can use many of the built-in functions to process and use the XML values throughout the rest of your flow.

Input

Field Definition Type Required

xml

XML string to convert into an object.

Text

TRUE

options

attrkey

The string used as the key for the attribute object created for each XML element.

The default is $.

Text

TRUE

charkey

A text string to use as the key to access character content within an XML element.

This string is applied only if explicitCharkey is set to True.

The default is _ (the underscore character).

For example, consider the following output:

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 "ARTIST": [
        "The Men"
      ],

If you set charkey to _ and explicitCharkey is True, then this element becomes:

Copy 
 "ARTIST": [
        {
          "_": "The Men"
        }
      ],

Text

FALSE

explicitCharkey

Indicates if a charkey is used.

The default is False.

True/False

FALSE

trim

Indicates if the white space at the beginning and end of a text node should be removed

The default is False.

For example, if set to True, then the text string ' Surfer Blood ' in the input XML becomes 'Surfer Blood' in the output object.

True/False

FALSE

normalizeTags

Indicates if all tag names should be normalized to lowercase.

The default is False.

For example, if set to True, then the tag ARTIST in the input XML becomes artist in the output object.

True/False

FALSE

normalize

Indicates if any whitespace within a text node should be trimmed. This is similar to trim, but also acts on any whitespace between text elements.

The default is False.

For example, if set to True, then the text string 'Surfer Blood ' in the input XML becomes 'Surfer Blood' in the output object.

True/False

FALSE

explicitRoot

Indicates if the resulting object should include the root node.

The default is False.

For example, if set to True, the example output is wrapped within a catalog object.

True/False

FALSE

Output

Field Definition Type

output

The object that's constructed from the input XML text and your selected options.

Object

Example input

This is an XML example of a simple record catalog:

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<?xml version="1.0"?>
<catalog>
    <release id="JNR165.8">
        <artist>Surfer Blood</artist>
        <title>1000 Palms</title>
    </release>
    <release id="OLE 984-7">
        <artist>The Men</artist>
        <title>Singles Going Home Alone #3</title>
    </release>
</catalog>

Example output

The following is the object created from the example XML input using the default selections on the function card:

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{
  "release": [
    {
      "$": {
        "id": "JNR165.8"
      },
      "artist": [
        "Surfer Blood"
      ],
      "title": [
        "1000 Palms"
      ]
    },
    {
      "$": {
        "id": "OLE 984-7"
      },
      "artist": [
        "The Men"
      ],
      "title": [
        "Singles Going Home Alone #3"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Related topics

Functions

Workflow elements