Convert Python dictionaries into XML

dict2xml.py

r"""Convert Python dictionaries into XML.

AUTHORS:

    - Marcelo Forets

EXAMPLES:

python: d = list()
python: d.append({'id':1, 'text':'foo'})
python: d.append({'id':2, 'text':'boo'})
python: print convert(d)

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<root_element>
  <element num="1">
    <text>foo</text>
    <id>1</id>
  </element>
  <element num="2">
    <text>boo</text>
    <id>2</id>
  </element>
</root_element>

REFERENCES:

    - The code for pretty XML printing is from: https://pymotw.com/2/xml/etree/ElementTree/create.html
"""

# *****************************************************************************
#       Copyright (C) 2016 Marcelo Forets <mforets@nonlinearnotes.com>
#
# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or
# any later version.
#                  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/
# *****************************************************************************

from xml.etree import ElementTree
from xml.etree.ElementTree import Element, SubElement
from xml.dom import minidom

def prettify(elem):
    r"""Return a pretty-printed XML string for the Element.
    """
    rough_string = ElementTree.tostring(elem, 'utf-8')
    reparsed = minidom.parseString(rough_string)

    return reparsed.toprettyxml(indent="  ")


def convert(source_dict):
    r""" Convert a list of dictionaries (or a list of dictionaries of dictionaries) into an XML file.
    """

    root = Element('root_element')

    for i, element in enumerate(source_dict, 1):

        new_element = SubElement(root, 'element', num=str(i))

        for key in element:

            new_child = SubElement(new_element, key)

            if type(element[key]) == dict:
                for sub_key in element[key]:
                    new_sub_child = SubElement(new_child, sub_key)
                    new_sub_child.text = str(element[key][sub_key])
            else:
                new_child.text = str(element[key])

    return prettify(root)