Script to convert a series of XML documents into an Array of Hashes then to a JSON file

xml_to_json_array.rb

#
# Read a series of XML documents into a large Array of Hashes
# export as JSON
#

# assign some constants to handle file names / paths
PATH_TO_XML_FILES, EXPORT_FILE = ARGV.first, ARGV.last

# argument validation
raise ArgumentError, 'You must specify a path from which to read the XML documents' if PATH_TO_XML_FILES.nil?
raise ArgumentError, 'You must specify an output file' if EXPORT_FILE.nil?

# an empty array for our Hashes
arr = []

# iterate over each file in the input directory
Dir.foreach(PATH_TO_XML_FILES) do |file|

  # check file is XML
  if file =~ /.xml/

    # open the file and read
    File.open(PATH_TO_XML_FILES+'/'+file) do |f|

      # read from the file then convert to ruby Hash and append to array
      arr << Hash.from_xml(f.read)

    end
  
  end

end

# write the contents to a json file
File.open(PATH_TO_XML_FILES+'/'+EXPORT_FILE, 'w+') do |f|
  f.write(arr.to_json)
end