What You Can Do With This XML Formatter
- Beautify XML with consistent indentation and line breaks for easier reading and code review
- Minify XML by removing comments and collapsing whitespace strictly between tags
- Control indentation: choose spaces or tabs and set indent size (1–8) directly from the UI
- Preserves element content, attributes, CDATA sections, namespaces and processing instructions
- Works with XML, XSL/XSLT, XSD, WSDL, plist and other XML-based formats used in real projects
- Great for sitemaps, RSS/Atom feeds, SVG assets, SOAP envelopes, Android layouts and manifests
- Paste code or drag-and-drop XML files directly into the editor
- Quickly copy the formatted or minified result back into your editor or repository
- Runs in your browser via a dedicated XML adapter — no account, no persistent server-side storage
🛠️ How to Format or Minify XML in a Few Seconds for xml-formatter
1. Paste or Upload Your XML
Drop your XML into the editor or upload a `.xml`, `.xsl`, `.xslt`, `.xsd`, `.wsdl` or `.plist` file. The tool parses the document and prepares it for formatting or minification.
2. Choose Format or Minify
Use the **Action** selector or the dedicated buttons to switch between **Format** (beautify for readability) and **Minify** (compact for size and transport).
3. Adjust Indentation Options (Optional)
Pick your preferred **Indent Size** (1–8 spaces) and whether to use spaces or tabs. These settings control how nested elements are displayed when formatting. You can also tune wrap/line length via the internal `printWidth` mapping.
4. Copy Your Clean XML
Review the output, then copy the formatted or minified XML back into your project, sitemap, test payload or configuration file. Keep a formatted version in Git and ship the minified version to production if needed.
Technical Details
XML Compatibility & Behavior
The formatter/minifier is designed for generic XML and common XML-based formats used in web, mobile and backend systems.
| Type | Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| XML 1.0 | ✅ Full | Standard W3C XML documents with namespaces and processing instructions. |
| RSS / Atom feeds | ✅ Full | Useful for debugging feed structure, dates and content fields. |
| SVG / vector XML | ✅ Typical | Handy for optimizing inline SVG and icon assets before embedding. |
| SOAP / XML-RPC envelopes | ✅ Structure | Improves readability of envelopes and payloads during debugging. |
| Config / Android XML / plist | ✅ Common | Layouts, manifests, plists and config-style XML files. |
Formatting & Minification Modes
Two main modes share the same XML parsing core but apply different transformations on top.
| Mode | Transforms | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Pretty-print | Adds consistent indentation and line breaks based on element hierarchy. |
| Format | Indent settings | Respects indent size (1–8) and style (spaces or tabs) from the UI options. |
| Format | Line length hint | Uses an internal `printWidth` derived from Wrap / Line Length where applicable. |
| Minify | Remove comments | Strips `<!-- ... -->` comment nodes to reduce file size. |
| Minify | Collapse whitespace between tags | Rewrites `> <` into `><` without touching text nodes or CDATA. |
| Both | Preserve CDATA & PIs | Keeps `<![CDATA[...]]>` and processing instructions like `<?xml-stylesheet?>` intact. |
| Both | Preserve namespaces | Does not alter prefixes, URIs or namespace declarations on elements and attributes. |
Input Limits & Safety
The underlying logic is tuned for interactive use inside a browser tab.
| Parameter | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Max input size | ≈ 2 MB / ~2,000,000 characters | Same safety limit as the internal formatter logic. |
| Supported file extensions | .xml, .xsl, .xslt, .xsd, .wsdl, .plist | Matches the `fileExtensions` list in the tool configuration. |
| MIME types | application/xml, text/xml | Typical content-types for pasted or uploaded XML. |
| Timeout | ~25 seconds | Protects against extremely large or pathological input via a hard timeout. |
| Encoding | UTF-8 recommended | Convert legacy encodings (ISO-8859-1, Windows-1252, etc.) before processing for best results. |
Command Line Alternatives
If you need to format or compact very large XML files in a terminal, script or CI pipeline, use these battle-tested tools.
Linux / 🍎 macOS
Pretty-print XML with xmllint
xmllint --format input.xml > output.xmlProduces human-readable, indented XML using libxml2.
Minify XML by removing indentation-only whitespace
xmllint --noblanks input.xml | sed -E ':a;N;$!ba;s/>[\t\r\n ]+</></g' > output.min.xmlDrops blank text nodes and collapses whitespace strictly between tags.
Pretty-print with xmlstarlet
xmlstarlet fo input.xml > output.xmlFast XML formatter that can be integrated into build and deploy scripts.
Windows (PowerShell)
Collapse whitespace between tags in XML
Get-Content input.xml -Raw | ForEach-Object { $_ -replace ">\s+<", "><" } | Set-Content output.min.xmlKeeps text and CDATA intact while compressing inter-tag gaps.
Practical Use Cases
Sitemap & SEO XML Cleanup
Make `sitemap.xml` and other crawlable XML easier to review and maintain.
- Beautify sitemap and feed XML before pushing changes to production.
- Quickly spot misnested tags, duplicated URLs or missing required elements.
- Minify sitemaps for faster transfer while keeping a readable version in your repo.
Developer XML Debugging & APIs
Understand machine-generated XML from services, middleware or legacy systems.
- Format SOAP and XML-RPC responses before inspecting payloads.
- Clean up CMS-generated XML to track down broken structure or invalid nodes.
- Minify XML configuration snippets before embedding them into other formats.
Config Files & Infrastructure
Keep infrastructure XML files readable in Git while serving compact artifacts in production.
- Beautify Android layout XML and manifests before code review.
- Normalize indentation in shared XSD/XSLT libraries.
- Create compact XML variants for packaging, OTA updates or deployment pipelines.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
❓What happens if my XML is malformed?
XML is not well-formed, the underlying parser will fail and the tool reports an error instead of producing output. Fix structural issues such as unclosed tags, invalid nesting, missing quotes or mismatched element names, then run the formatter again.📏When is it safe to remove whitespace in XML?
🧼Does the XML minifier remove comments?
🔒Is my XML sent to a server?
XML adapter. As a general best practice, avoid pasting highly confidential data or secrets into online tools and prefer local workflows for very sensitive payloads.⚙️Can I get the same formatting in my IDE or CI?
XML as part of your local workflow, and run them in your CI pipeline to keep XML assets consistently formatted across branches and environments.Pro Tips
Keep a readable, formatted XML version in your repository and use the minified version only for production builds or transport.
Add XML formatting or minification steps to your CI pipeline to enforce a consistent style across all branches and environments.
For documents containing credentials, tokens or confidential business data, run XML formatting and minification locally with CLI tools instead of online.
When working with SVG, test a few key icons or illustrations visually after minification to confirm that whitespace changes do not affect rendering.
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