Web/API/XMLSerializer

The XMLSerializer interface provides the serializeToString() method to construct an XML string representing a [[../../../Glossary/DOM|DOM]] tree.

Methods

serializeToString(): Returns the serialized subtree of a string.
serializeToStream() ' ': The subtree rooted by the specified element is serialized to a byte stream using the character set specified.

Examples

Serializing XML into a string

The first, basic, example just serializes an entire document into a string containing XML.

 var s = new XMLSerializer();
 var d = document;
 var str = s.serializeToString(d);
 saveXML(str);

This involves creating a new XMLSerializer object, then passing the Document to be serialized into serializeToString(), which returns the XML equivalent of the document.

Inserting nodes into a DOM based on XML

This example uses the Element.insertAdjacentHTML() method to insert a new DOM Node into the body of the Document, based on XML created by serializing an Element object.

Note: In the real world, you should usually instead call importNode() method to import the new node into the DOM, then call one of the following methods to add the node to the DOM tree:

The Document and Element methods append() and prepend()
The Node.replaceWith() method (to replace an existing node with the new one)
The Document.insertAdjacentElement() and Element.insertAdjacentElement() methods.

Because insertAdjacentHTML() accepts a string and not a Node as its second parameter, XMLSerializer is used to first convert the node into a string.

var inp = document.createElement('input');
var XMLS = new XMLSerializer(); 
var inp_xmls = XMLS.serializeToString(inp); // First convert DOM node into a string

// Insert the newly created node into the document's body
document.body.insertAdjacentHTML('afterbegin', inp_xmls);

The code creates a new <input> element by calling Document.createElement(), then serializes it into XML using serializeToString().

Once that's done, insertAdjacentHTML() is used to insert the <input> element into the DOM.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
DOM Parsing and SerializationThe definition of 'XMLSerializer' in that specification.	Working Draft

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`XMLSerializer`	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes	IE Full support 9	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support 3	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
`serializeToStream` Experimental'Deprecated'Non-standard'	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 79	Firefox No support ? — 20	IE No support No	Opera Full support Yes	Safari No support No	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android No support ? — 20	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.': Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.': Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.': Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.