XML to YAML
Convert XML documents into clean, human-readable YAML. Preserves element structure, attributes, and text content.
Why Convert XML to YAML?
YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) is a human-friendly data serialisation format popular in DevOps tooling - Kubernetes manifests, Ansible playbooks, GitHub Actions workflows, and Helm charts are all written in YAML. Converting XML configuration or data files to YAML makes them compatible with this ecosystem and significantly reduces visual noise: no angle brackets, no closing tags, no quoted attribute names.
YAML's indentation-based structure maps naturally onto XML's hierarchical element tree, making it one of the cleanest conversion targets for data-oriented XML.
Conversion Mapping
The conversion follows the same conventions as the XML-to-JSON converter, then serialises the resulting object graph as YAML:
- Elements become YAML mapping keys at the appropriate indentation level.
- Attributes are preserved with the
@prefix convention, keeping them distinguishable from child elements. - Repeated elements become YAML sequences (lists), using the
-list item prefix. - String values containing YAML special characters (
: [ ] , & * # ? | < > = ! % @ `) are automatically quoted.
Common Use Cases
Kubernetes Config Migration
Some legacy deployment systems use XML manifests. Converting them to YAML is the first step toward adopting Kubernetes or Helm, which require YAML-formatted resource definitions.
CI/CD Pipeline Data
Jenkins pipelines often produce XML reports (JUnit, Surefire). Converting them to YAML makes the data easier to process in GitHub Actions steps or Ansible tasks that natively consume YAML.
Spring to Quarkus Migration
Spring Framework applications use XML application context files. Quarkus and Micronaut prefer YAML configuration. Converting the XML bean definitions gives a starting point for the new config file.
Ansible Variable Files
Inventory data exported from CMDBs or asset management systems is often XML. Converting to YAML produces files compatible with Ansible's group_vars and host_vars directories.