class Nokogiri::XML::Node

def serialize *args, &block


end
config.format.as_xml
node.serialize(:encoding => 'UTF-8') do |config|

or

node.serialize(:encoding => 'UTF-8', :save_with => FORMAT | AS_XML)

These two statements are equivalent:

block. See SaveOptions.
Serialize Node using +options+. Save options can also be set using a
## 
def serialize *args, &block
  options = args.first.is_a?(Hash) ? args.shift : {
    :encoding   => args[0],
    :save_with  => args[1] || SaveOptions::FORMAT
  }
  encoding = options[:encoding] || document.encoding
  outstring = ""
  if encoding && outstring.respond_to?(:force_encoding)
    outstring.force_encoding(Encoding.find(encoding))
  end
  io = StringIO.new(outstring)
  write_to io, options, &block
  io.string
end