XML
XML (Extensible Markup Language) encodes trees of elements, attributes, and text. It is still common in publishing, SOAP, and enterprise APIs.
Common uses
- Document interchange
- Legacy SOAP APIs
- Office document internals
Strengths
- Schemas (XSD)
- Namespaces
- Mixed content for documents
Weaknesses
- Verbose
- Awkward in JSON-shaped applications
- XXE and billion-laughs attacks on careless parsers
Compatibility. UTF-8 is dominant. Namespaces are part of names in ConvertPass’s JSON mapping rather than expanded.
Size and quality. Large on disk. Compress in transit.
How to open it. A text editor or an XML-aware IDE. Browsers can display XML but may fetch stylesheets.
How to convert it. XML to JSON and JSON to XML with the @_ attribute convention.
Security and privacy. Disable external entities. ConvertPass’s parser does not fetch DTDs. Still do not treat converted JSON as HTML.
Related tools
- XML to JSON
Map XML into JSON while keeping attributes and text nodes visible.
- JSON to XML
Build XML from JSON when you already know the root element name.
- HTML to Markdown
Flatten HTML into Markdown without rendering the original markup.
Related comparisons
Last reviewed 16 August 2026.