Decode XMLedit

The decode_xml processor decodes XML data that is stored under the field key. It outputs the result into the target_field.

Examplesedit

This example demonstrates how to decode an XML string contained in the message field and write the resulting fields into the root of the document. Any fields that already exist are overwritten.

  - decode_xml:
      field: message
      target_field: ""
      overwrite_keys: true

By default any decoding errors that occur will stop the processing chain, and the error will be added to the error.message field. To ignore all errors and continue to the next processor, set ignore_failure: true. To specifically ignore failures caused by field not existing, set ignore_missing: true.

  - decode_xml:
      field: example
      target_field: xml
      ignore_missing: true
      ignore_failure: true

By default the names of all keys converted from XML are converted to lowercase. To disable this behavior, set to_lower: false, for example:

  - decode_xml:
      field: message
      target_field: xml
      to_lower: false

Example XML input:

<catalog>
  <book seq="1">
    <author>William H. Gaddis</author>
    <title>The Recognitions</title>
    <review>One of the great seminal American novels of the 20th century.</review>
  </book>
</catalog>

Will produce the following output:

{
	"xml": {
		"catalog": {
			"book": {
				"author": "William H. Gaddis",
				"review": "One of the great seminal American novels of the 20th century.",
				"seq": "1",
				"title": "The Recognitions"
			}
		}
	}
}

Configuration settingsedit

Elastic Agent processors execute before ingest pipelines, which means that your processor configurations cannot refer to fields that are created by ingest pipelines or Logstash. For more limitations, refer to What are some limitations of using processors?

Name Required Default Description

field

Yes

message

Source field containing the XML.

target_field

No

The field under which the decoded XML will be written. By default the decoded XML object replaces the field from which it was read. To merge the decoded XML fields into the root of the event, specify target_field with an empty string (target_field: ""). Note that the null value (target_field:) is treated as if the field was not set at all.

overwrite_keys

No

true

Whether keys that already exist in the event are overwritten by keys from the decoded XML object.

to_lower

No

true

Whether to convert all keys to lowercase.

document_id

No

XML key to use as the document ID. If configured, the field will be removed from the original XML document and stored in @metadata._id.

ignore_missing

No

false

Whether to return an error if a specified field does not exist.

ignore_failure

No

false

Whether to ignore all errors produced by the processor.

See Conditions for a list of supported conditions.