code: @Nullable
    public static String getNodeAsString (@Nonnull final Node aNode, @Nonnull final IXMLWriterSettings aSettings)
    {
      // start serializing
      try (final NonBlockingStringWriter aWriter = new NonBlockingStringWriter (50 * CGlobal.BYTES_PER_KILOBYTE))
      {
        if (writeToWriter (aNode, aWriter, aSettings).isSuccess ())
        {
          s_aSizeHdl.addSize (aWriter.size ());
          return aWriter.getAsString ();
        }
      }
      catch (final Exception ex)
      {
        if (LOGGER.isErrorEnabled ())
          LOGGER.error ("Error serializing DOM node with settings " + aSettings.toString (), ex);
      }
      return null;
    }
docs: Convert the passed DOM node to an XML string using the provided XML writer
  settings.
  
  @param aNode
  The node to be converted to a string. May not be <code>null</code> .
  @param aSettings
  The XML writer settings to be used. May not be <code>null</code>.
  @return The string representation of the passed node.
  @since 8.6.3