xml_write.py

from xml.sax.saxutils import XMLGenerator
import StringIO
import xml.dom.minidom

# unformatted
with open("dragons.xml", "w") as outfile:

    w = XMLGenerator(outfile, 'utf-8')
    w.startDocument()
    w.startElement("test", {'bar': 'baz'})
    w.characters("Foo")
    w.endElement("test")
    w.endDocument()

# formatted
with open("dragons.xml") as infile:
    w = infile.read()
    dom = xml.dom.minidom.parseString(w)
    k = dom.toprettyxml()
    print(k)