xmlvalidate

Small command-line tools for parsing and formatting XML and JSON, converting between them, and compiling and running legacy JScript.NET source.

Tools

Tool	Purpose	Input
xmlvalidate	Parse an XML document and print formatted XML.	File paths or URIs as arguments; standard input when no arguments are supplied.
jsonvalidate	Parse and format JSON, with optional XML conversion through Json.NET.	Literal document text as arguments; standard input when no document arguments are supplied.
jsvalidate	Compile JScript.NET source in memory with Microsoft.JScript and invoke its entry point.	Literal source text as arguments; standard input when no arguments are supplied.

XML and JSON validation here means parsing the input with the respective parser. There is no XSD or JSON Schema validation.

jsvalidate executes the supplied code with the process's permissions. It uses the legacy .NET Framework JScript compiler; it is not a modern JavaScript engine or a syntax-only checker.

Build

For the modern XML and JSON tools, install the .NET 10 SDK and build the individual projects from the repository root:

dotnet build xmlvalidate/xmlvalidate.csproj -c Release -f net10.0
dotnet build jsonvalidate/jsonvalidate.csproj -c Release -f net10.0

The shared Directory.Build.props places these outputs in Release/net10.0/. Run the DLLs with dotnet as shown below. The modern targets use managed XML/JSON APIs and do not require Windows-specific components.

Both projects declare net35, net40, netstandard2.0, net8.0, net9.0, and net10.0 targets. The .NET Standard target describes an API compatibility surface, not a standalone runtime. jsonvalidate references the Newtonsoft.Json NuGet package with a wildcard version.

The solution also includes jsvalidate, which targets .NET Framework 2.0 and 4.0 and references Microsoft.JScript and Newtonsoft.Json. Building and running this legacy tool requires a Windows .NET Framework environment with the corresponding reference assemblies and JScript compiler support. A full solution build therefore has additional requirements beyond the modern XML and JSON projects.

Usage

The following examples run from the repository root after the Release builds above. Input redirection (<) works in cmd.exe and POSIX shells; PowerShell uses different input piping syntax.

XML

Pass one or more file paths, or read a document from standard input:

dotnet Release/net10.0/xmlvalidate.dll document.xml
dotnet Release/net10.0/xmlvalidate.dll < document.xml

Successful parsing writes formatted XML to standard output. With multiple arguments, each document is handled separately.

JSON and XML conversion

Unlike xmlvalidate, jsonvalidate treats document arguments as literal content, not filenames. Use standard input to read a file:

dotnet Release/net10.0/jsonvalidate.dll < document.json
dotnet Release/net10.0/jsonvalidate.dll --noindent < document.json
dotnet Release/net10.0/jsonvalidate.dll --fromxml < document.xml
dotnet Release/net10.0/jsonvalidate.dll --toxml < document.json

Option	Effect
--fromxml	Parse the input as XML and convert it to JSON using Json.NET.
--toxml	Convert the parsed JSON to XML using Json.NET.
--noindent	Disable indentation in JSON or XML output.
--	End option processing.

Options are case-sensitive and must precede document arguments. XML conversion follows Json.NET's mapping: JSON objects with multiple properties receive a root element, while non-object tokens use an array wrapper with arrayElement content. Conversion does not preserve the original document's exact representation.

Use one document per invocation when redirecting output to a file. Multiple document arguments are processed separately, and JSON results are written without separators.

Errors and automation

The XML and JSON tools write parsing and conversion errors to standard error, but caught errors do not set a failing process exit code. Check diagnostics when using them in scripts; a zero exit code alone does not establish that the input was valid.

jsvalidate also has inconsistent error exit behavior: compiler errors from standard input return a failure code, while several argument-processing and exception paths return zero. Its output can include both compiler messages and output from the executed program.