pretty print - Is there a stylesheet or Windows commandline tool for controllable XML formatting, specifically putting attributes one-per-line?

Question

I am searching for an XSLT or command-line tool (or C# code that can be made into a command-line tool, etc) for Windows that will do XML pretty-printing. Specifically, I want one that has the ability to put attributes one-to-a-line, something like:

<Node>
   <ChildNode 
      value1='5'
      value2='6'
      value3='happy' />
</Node>

It doesn't have to be EXACTLY like that, but I want to use it for an XML file that has nodes with dozens of attributes and spreading them across multiple lines makes them easier to read, edit, and text-diff.

NOTE: I think my preferred solution is an XSLT sheet I can pass through a C# method, though a Windows command-line tool is good too.

Answer 1

Here's a PowerShell script to do it. It takes the following input:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Node>
    <ChildNode value1="5" value2="6" value3="happy" />
</Node>

...and produces this as output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Node>
  <ChildNode
    value1="5"
    value2="6"
    value3="happy" />
</Node>

Here you go:

param(
    [string] $inputFile = $(throw "Please enter an input file name"),
    [string] $outputFile = $(throw "Please supply an output file name")
)

$data = [xml](Get-Content $inputFile)

$xws = new-object System.Xml.XmlWriterSettings
$xws.Indent = $true
$xws.IndentChars = "  "
$xws.NewLineOnAttributes = $true

$data.Save([Xml.XmlWriter]::Create($outputFile, $xws))

Take that script, save it as C:formatxml.ps1. Then, from a PowerShell prompt type the following:

C:formatxml.ps1 C:PathToUglyFile.xml C:PathToNeatAndTidyFile.xml

This script is basically just using the .NET framework so you could very easily migrate this into a C# application.

NOTE: If you have not run scripts from PowerShell before, you will have to execute the following command at an elevated PowerShell prompt before you will be able to execute the script:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

You only have to do this one time though.

I hope that's useful to you.