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(Quick Reference) # 7.1.7 XML and JSON Responses - Reference Documentation Authors: Graeme Rocher, Peter Ledbrook, Marc Palmer, Jeff Brown, Luke Daley, Burt Beckwith, Lari Hotari Version: 2.3.8 ## 7.1.7 XML and JSON Responses #### Using the render method to output XML Grails supports a few different ways to produce XML and JSON responses. The first is the render method. The `render` method can be passed a block of code to do mark-up building in XML:

    def list() {    def results = Book.list()    render(contentType: "text/xml") {
            books {
                for (b in results) {
                    book(title: b.title)
                }
            }
        }
    }
The result of this code would be something like:
    <books>
        <book title="The Stand" />
        <book title="The Shining" />
    </books>
Be careful to avoid naming conflicts when using mark-up building. For example this code would produce an error:

    def list() {    def books = Book.list()  // naming conflict here    render(contentType: "text/xml") {
            books {
                for (b in results) {
                    book(title: b.title)
                }
            }
        }
    }
This is because there is local variable `books` which Groovy attempts to invoke as a method. #### Using the render method to output JSON The `render` method can also be used to output JSON:

    def list() {    def results = Book.list()    render(contentType: "application/json") {
            books = array {
                for (b in results) {
                    book title: b.title
                }
            }
        }
    }
In this case the result would be something along the lines of:
    [
        {"title":"The Stand"},
        {"title":"The Shining"}
    ]
The same dangers with naming conflicts described above for XML also apply to JSON building. #### Automatic XML Marshalling Grails also supports automatic marshalling of domain classes to XML using special converters. To start off with, import the `grails.converters` package into your controller:
    import grails.converters.*
Now you can use the following highly readable syntax to automatically convert domain classes to XML:
    render Book.list() as XML
The resulting output would look something like the following::
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
    <list>
      <book id="1">
        <author>Stephen King</author>
        <title>The Stand</title>
      </book>
      <book id="2">
        <author>Stephen King</author>
        <title>The Shining</title>
      </book>
    </list>
For more information on XML marshalling see the section on REST #### Automatic JSON Marshalling Grails also supports automatic marshalling to JSON using the same mechanism. Simply substitute `XML` with `JSON`:
    render Book.list() as JSON
The resulting output would look something like the following:
    [
        {"id":1,
         "class":"Book",
         "author":"Stephen King",
         "title":"The Stand"},
        {"id":2,
         "class":"Book",
         "author":"Stephen King",
         "releaseDate":new Date(1194127343161),
         "title":"The Shining"}
     ]
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