Background
libxml-to-js was born to solve a specific problem: to support my early efforts with aws2js. At the time, the options were fairly limited. xml2js was a carry-over from aws-lib which aws2js initially forked. I was never happy with xml2js for a couple of reasons: performance and error reporting. Therefore I looked for a solution to have a drop-in replacement. Borrowed some code from Brian White, made it fit to the xml2js (v1) formal specifications, then pushed it to GitHub. At some point the project had five watchers and five contributors. I guess it hit a sweet spot. That’s why it’s got support for XPath and CDATA, most of it from external contributions. And only then I started using it for other XML related stuff.
The name was chosen to make a distinction from libxmljs which sits at the core of this library which actually binds to Gnome’s libxml2.
Due to the fact that aws2js gained some popularity and I’m doing a complete rewrite with 0.9, the output of libxml-to-js most probably won’t change beyond the “specs” of xml2js v1.
Performance
The actual reason for why I’m writing this article is the fact that people keep asking about the reason for choosing libxml-to-js over xml2js, therefore next time when this question arrives, I am going to simply link this article.
Even now, two and a half years later, with some crappy benchmark that I pushed together, it is somewhere around 25-30% faster than xml2js under usual circumstances. In only specific cases that don’t apply to the XML returned by AWS, xml2js closes in. The part where it really shines is still the error reporting where besides the fact that’s accurate, it is also screaming fast compared to xml2js. In my tests it came out to be around 27X faster.
The code:
var Benchmark = require('benchmark');
var suite = new Benchmark.Suite;
var parser1 = require('libxml-to-js');
var parser2 = new require('xml2js').Parser({
mergeAttrs: true,
explicitRoot: false,
explicitArray: false
}).parseString;
require('fs').readFile(process.argv[2], function(err, res) {
if (err) {
console.error(err);
return;
}
var xml = res.toString();
// add tests
suite.add('XML#libxml-to-js', function() {
parser1(xml, function(err, res) {});
})
.add('XML#xml2js', function() {
parser2(xml, function(err, res) {});
})
// add listeners
.on('cycle', function(event) {
console.log(String(event.target));
})
.on('complete', function() {
console.log('Fastest is ' + this.filter('fastest').pluck('name'));
})
// run async
.run({
'async': true
});
}); |
var Benchmark = require('benchmark');
var suite = new Benchmark.Suite;
var parser1 = require('libxml-to-js');
var parser2 = new require('xml2js').Parser({
mergeAttrs: true,
explicitRoot: false,
explicitArray: false
}).parseString;
require('fs').readFile(process.argv[2], function(err, res) {
if (err) {
console.error(err);
return;
}
var xml = res.toString();
// add tests
suite.add('XML#libxml-to-js', function() {
parser1(xml, function(err, res) {});
})
.add('XML#xml2js', function() {
parser2(xml, function(err, res) {});
})
// add listeners
.on('cycle', function(event) {
console.log(String(event.target));
})
.on('complete', function() {
console.log('Fastest is ' + this.filter('fastest').pluck('name'));
})
// run async
.run({
'async': true
});
});
The results, based onto the XML files from the libxml-to-js unit tests and the package.json for the error speed test:
# package.json
XML#libxml-to-js x 18,533 ops/sec ±3.46% (75 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 673 ops/sec ±1.35% (68 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# ec2-describeimages.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 1,122 ops/sec ±4.59% (74 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 818 ops/sec ±7.02% (83 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# ec2-describevolumes-large.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 65.41 ops/sec ±3.13% (65 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 50.88 ops/sec ±2.14% (65 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# element-cdata.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 14,689 ops/sec ±5.41% (72 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 11,551 ops/sec ±2.36% (88 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# namespace.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 9,702 ops/sec ±5.75% (72 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 5,802 ops/sec ±2.41% (81 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# root-cdata.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 22,983 ops/sec ±7.11% (69 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 14,849 ops/sec ±6.01% (87 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# text.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 2,669 ops/sec ±3.68% (78 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 2,617 ops/sec ±2.41% (88 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# wordpress-rss2.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 2,056 ops/sec ±4.08% (75 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 1,226 ops/sec ±2.79% (84 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js |
# package.json
XML#libxml-to-js x 18,533 ops/sec ±3.46% (75 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 673 ops/sec ±1.35% (68 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# ec2-describeimages.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 1,122 ops/sec ±4.59% (74 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 818 ops/sec ±7.02% (83 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# ec2-describevolumes-large.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 65.41 ops/sec ±3.13% (65 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 50.88 ops/sec ±2.14% (65 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# element-cdata.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 14,689 ops/sec ±5.41% (72 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 11,551 ops/sec ±2.36% (88 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# namespace.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 9,702 ops/sec ±5.75% (72 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 5,802 ops/sec ±2.41% (81 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# root-cdata.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 22,983 ops/sec ±7.11% (69 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 14,849 ops/sec ±6.01% (87 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# text.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 2,669 ops/sec ±3.68% (78 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 2,617 ops/sec ±2.41% (88 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
# wordpress-rss2.xml
XML#libxml-to-js x 2,056 ops/sec ±4.08% (75 runs sampled)
XML#xml2js x 1,226 ops/sec ±2.79% (84 runs sampled)
Fastest is XML#libxml-to-js
The tests ran under node.js v0.10.22 / OS X 10.9 / Intel Core i5-4250U CPU @ 1.30GHz with the latest module versions for both libxml-to-js and xml2js.
