What are the best tools for opening very large XML files and examining the tree and confirming they are valid?

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Level 4

1,389 points

What are the best tools for opening very large XML files and examining the tree and confirming they are valid?

I am generating some very large XML files (600,000+ lines, 50MB+ characters). I finally have them all being valid XML and valid UTF-8.

But the files are so large Safari and Chrome will often not open them. FireFox will though.

Instead of these browsers, I was wondering if there are there any other recommended apps for the Mac for opening and viewing the XML, getting an error message if they are not valid for some reason and examing the XML tree?

I opened the file in the default app for XML which is Xcode, but that is just like opening it in a plain text editor. You can't expand/collapse the XML tree like you can with a browser, and it doesn't report errors.

Thanks,

Doug

Posted on Mar 6, 2014 7:11 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,258 points

Mar 6, 2014 8:01 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

Already seen this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_XML_editors

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Answer 2

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,389 points

Mar 6, 2014 4:26 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Hi Tom,

I had not seen that list. I'll look it over.

I'm also in touch with the developer of BBEdit (they are quite responsive) and they are willing to look at the file in question and see why it is not reporting UTF-8 errors while Chrome is.

For now I have all the invalid characters quashed and things are working. But it would be useful in the future.

By the by, some of those editors are quite pricey!

doug

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Answer 3

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,258 points

Mar 6, 2014 4:31 PM in response to Doug Lerner2

Doug Lerner2 wrote:

By the by, some of those editors are quite pricey!

Indeed! I guess it must be somewhat difficult to create a good one for professional use.

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Answer 4

Doug Lerner2 Author

Level 4

1,389 points

Mar 6, 2014 4:57 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

I need to find a low-cost one because this is something I just need to do like once or twice a year. And my requirements are limited: just validate the XML and report on errors. I'm not actually going to be creating XML with the editor.

I will look them over!

Thanks,

doug

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