How can I respond in XML using ExpressJS? - node.js

Question

I have a simple code that gives a JSON response for a specific route. Here's my current code:
var express = require('express')
, async = require('async')
, http = require('http')
, mysql = require('mysql');
var app = express();
var connection = mysql.createConnection({
host: 'localhost',
user: '****',
password: "****",
database: 'restaurants'
});
connection.connect();
// all environments
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 1235);
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public/images'));
app.get('/DescriptionSortedRating/',function(request,response){
var name_of_restaurants;
async.series( [
// Get the first table contents
function ( callback ) {
connection.query('SELECT * FROM restaurants ORDER BY restaurantRATING', function(err, rows, fields)
{
console.log('Connection result error '+err);
name_of_restaurants = rows;
callback();
});
}
// Send the response
], function ( error, results ) {
response.json({
'restaurants' : name_of_restaurants
});
} );
} );
http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function(){
console.log('Express server listening on port ' + app.get('port'));
});
How can I make an XML response equivalent to the JSON above?

Answer 1

You can use any number of the XML libraries available on npm. Here's an example using the simply-named "xml" library:
var xml = require('xml');
response.set('Content-Type', 'text/xml');
response.send(xml(name_of_restaurants));
See the module's documentation for a description of how it converts JavaScript objects to XML. If you need things returned in a specific XML format, you'll have more work to do, of course.

Answer 2

As an update to this, it looks like res.type should be used instead as res.set does not give the same results.
res.type('application/xml');
More information can be found in the API reference.