XMLWriter: Simple JavaScript XML Creator

JS Code

var xw = new XMLWriter('UTF-8');
xw.formatting = 'indented';//add indentation and newlines
xw.indentChar = ' ';//indent with spaces
xw.indentation = 2;//add 2 spaces per level

xw.writeStartDocument( );
xw.writeDocType('"items.dtd"');
xw.writeStartElement( 'items' );

  xw.writeComment('button');
  xw.writeStartElement('item');
    xw.writeAttributeString( 'id', 'item-1');
    xw.writeAttributeString( 'enabled', 'true' );
    xw.writeStartElement( 'code');
      xw.writeCDATA( '<button>Save</button>' );
    xw.writeEndElement();
    xw.writeElementString('description', 'a save button');
  xw.writeEndElement();
  
  xw.writeComment('image');
  xw.writeStartElement('item');
    xw.writeAttributeString( 'id', 'item-2');
    xw.writeAttributeString( 'enabled', 'false' );
    xw.writeStartElement( 'code');
      xw.writeCDATA( '<img src="photo.gif" alt="me" />' );
    xw.writeEndElement();
    xw.writeElementString('description', 'a pic of myself!');
  xw.writeEndElement();
  
  xw.writeComment('link');
  xw.writeStartElement('item');
    xw.writeAttributeString( 'id', 'item-3');
    xw.writeAttributeString( 'enabled', 'true' );
    xw.writeStartElement( 'code');
      xw.writeCDATA( '<a href="http://google.com">Google</a>' );
    xw.writeEndElement();
    xw.writeElementString('description', 'a link to Google');
  xw.writeEndElement();
  
xw.writeEndElement();
xw.writeEndDocument();

Generated XML

Constructor

The constructor accepts 2 optional arguments: encoding, and version. You call it like this:

var xw = new XMLWriter( 'UTF-8', '1.0' );

Methods
Class instances have the following methods:

• writeStartDocument([ bool standalone ])
  Opens a new document, must be call on start, if standalone is specified, standalone="true/false" will be added to the header.
• writeEndDocument()
  Closes the active document, it's not really mandatory to call it.
• writeDocType( string declarations )
  Adds a doctype to the document, can be called at anytime. If specified, a doctype will be included in the generated xml, in this form:
  <!DOCTYPE root-element declarations>
• writeStartElement( string name [, string ns ] )
  Creates a new node element with this name, and it becomes the active element. A namespace can be specified.
• writeEndElement()
  Closes the active element and goes up one level.
• writeAttributeString( string attr, string value )
  Adds an attribute to the active element.
• writeString( string text )
  Adds a text node to the active element.
• writeElementString( string name, string txt [, string ns ] )
  Shortcut method, creates an element, adds the text and closes it.
• writeCDATA( string text )
  Adds a text node wrapped with CDATA, to the active element.
• writeComment( string text )
  Adds a comment node to the active element.
• flush(): string
  Generates the XML string and returns it.
• close()
  Closes the writer and cleans up.
• getDocument()
  Generates a real XMLDocument from the writer. This method doesn't belong to the original class.

Formatting

You can choose whether the generated XML is formatted or not, and how. You can modify the following options for each instance or from XMLWriter.prototype to affect them all:

• encoding 'ISO-8859-1' by default.
• version '1.0' by default.
• formatting 'indented'(default) or 'none'.
• indentChar '\t' by default, char to indent.
• indentation # of chars added per level, 1 by default.
• newLine '\n' by default, char to separate lines.

If you choose formatting = 'none', you don't need to modify indentChar, indentation or newLine.