Cookbooks
Dart
Chapter 10. Data Formats and Serialization
Working with XML

Dart:
Working with XML

How to:

Dart does not include built-in support for XML handling in its standard library, necessitating the use of third-party packages. One popular package is xml. To use it, you first need to add it to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  xml: ^5.0.0 // Use the latest version available

Then, import the package in your Dart file:

import 'package:xml/xml.dart' as xml;

Parsing XML:

Suppose you have an XML string like this:

<String name="greeting">Hello, world!</String>

You can parse and read the XML as follows:

void parseXml(String xmlString) {
    final document = xml.XmlDocument.parse(xmlString);
    final String content = document.findElements('String').single.getAttribute('name');
    print(content); // Outputs: greeting
}

void main() {
  final xmlString = '<String name="greeting">Hello, world!</String>';
  parseXml(xmlString);
}

Creating XML Documents:

Creating a new XML document is straightforward with the xml package:

void createXml() {
  final builder = xml.XmlBuilder();
  builder.processing('xml', 'version="1.0"');
  builder.element('greeting', nest: () {
    builder.attribute('name', 'hello');
    builder.text('Hello, world!');
  });
  final xmlDocument = builder.buildDocument();
  print(xmlDocument.toXmlString(pretty: true));
}

void main() {
  createXml();
}

Output:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<greeting name="hello">Hello, world!</greeting>

Querying and Modifying XML:

To find or modify elements, you can use XPath-like methods:

void modifyXml(String xmlString) {
    var document = xml.XmlDocument.parse(xmlString);
    var greeting = document.findAllElements('greeting').first;
    
    // Modifying the 'name' attribute
    greeting.setAttribute('name', 'greeting_modified');
    
    // Adding a new child element
    greeting.children.add(xml.XmlElement(xml.XmlName('message'), [], [xml.XmlText('Goodbye!')]));
    
    print(document.toXmlString(pretty: true));
}

void main() {
  final xmlString = '<greeting name="hello">Hello, world!</greeting>';
  modifyXml(xmlString);
}

Output:

<greeting name="greeting_modified">
  Hello, world!
  <message>Goodbye!</message>
</greeting>

These examples demonstrate basic operations for working with XML in Dart. With the xml package, you can parse, create, and manipulate XML documents to suit your application requirements.

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