XML Formatter & Prettifier | Online XML Viewer

Understanding XML and the Need for Formatting

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a markup language designed for storing and transporting data. Unlike HTML, which is focused on presentation, XML is focused on describing the data itself. It's commonly used in configuration files, legacy web services (SOAP), and for complex data interchange. XML documents can become deeply nested and very difficult to read without proper formatting.

How Our XML Prettifier Works

Our online XML tool, often called a "prettifier," is designed to bring clarity to even the most complex XML files.

• Beautify & Prettify: Adds logical indentation to reflect the parent-child relationships between XML nodes, making the data hierarchy immediately obvious.
• Minify & Compress: Removes all non-essential whitespace between tags to reduce the file size, which is useful for optimizing storage or transmission.
• Client-Side & Secure: Your XML data, which could contain sensitive configuration information, is never sent to our servers. All processing is done locally.

Common Uses for XML

While JSON has become more popular for web APIs, XML is still prevalent in many areas of development. You will encounter it in:

• Configuration Files: Many Java and .NET applications use XML for configuration (e.g., web.config).
• Vector Graphics: The SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format is actually a dialect of XML.
• RSS Feeds: The standard for syndicating blog articles is built on XML.
• Enterprise Systems: Many older, established systems rely on SOAP and WSDL, which are XML-based protocols.