Salesforce XML Beautifier

This extension formats Salesforce XML files more meaningfully to improve readability and minimize changes.

This extension is powered by the xml2js library with some customizations to implement file-specific indentation requirements, special characters escaping, and a newline character at the end of the XML file.

Algorithm

The sorting algorithm is custom comparator-based sort tailored for Salesforce XML files. This algorithm is inspired by the SwagUp.sf-xml-formatter sorting algorithm using a similar sorting approach.

Overview

1. Identify Type: Determine if the input is a primitive value (number, string, etc.), an array, or an object.
2. Generate Identifiers:
   • For primitive values, convert the value to a string.
   • For arrays, recursively generate identifiers for each element and combine them into a single identifier.
   • For objects, recursively generate identifiers for each key-value pair, using a specified set of relevant keys if provided, and combine them into a single identifier.
3. Custom Comparison: Compare two elements by their generated identifiers to determine their sort order.
4. Recursive Sorting:
   • For arrays, recursively sort each element and then sort the array based on the custom comparison.
   • For objects, recursively sort the values of each key and create a new object with the sorted keys.
     • Sorted keys are defined in the mappedKeys option in the sortConfig.ts file.
     • Unsorted keys are defined in the unmappedKeys option in the sortConfig.ts file.

It also handles special characters in string values, such as apostrophes, which are escaped when formatted. The algorithm also inserts a newline characters at the end of the XML file.