Reading XML file in Node.js

Question

I'm learning how to use Node. At this time, I have an XML file that looks like this:

sitemap.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>  <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"   xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd">   <url>     <loc>http://www.example.com</loc>     <lastmod>2015-10-01</lastmod>     <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>   </url>    <url>     <loc>http://www.example.com/about</loc>     <lastmod>2015-10-01</lastmod>     <changefreq>never</changefreq>   </url>    <url>     <loc>http://www.example.com/articles/tips-and-tricks</loc>     <lastmod>2015-10-01</lastmod>     <changefreq>never</changefreq>     <article:title>Tips and Tricks</blog:title>     <article:description>Learn some of the tips-and-tricks of the trade</article:description>   </url> </urlset> 

I am trying to load this XML in my Node app. When loaded, I want to only get the url elements that include the use of the <article: elements. At this time, I'm stuck though. Right now, I'm using XML2JS via the following:

var parser = new xml2js.Parser(); fs.readFile(__dirname + '/../public/sitemap.xml', function(err, data) {     if (!err) {         console.log(JSON.stringify(data));     } }); 

When the console.log statement is executed, I just see a bunch of numbers in the console window. Something like this:

{"type":"Buffer","data":[60,63,120, ...]} 

What am I missing?

Answer 1

use xml2json

https://www.npmjs.com/package/xml2json

fs = require('fs');  var parser = require('xml2json');    fs.readFile( './data.xml', function(err, data) {      var json = parser.toJson(data);      console.log("to json ->", json);   });

Answer 2

From the documentation.

The callback is passed two arguments (err, data), where data is the contents of the file.

If no encoding is specified, then the raw buffer is returned.

If options is a string, then it specifies the encoding. Example:

fs.readFile('/etc/passwd', 'utf8', callback); 

You didn't specify an encoding, so you get the raw buffer.