XML DOM Load Functions

The code for loading XML documents can be stored in a function.

The loadXMLDoc() Function

To make the code from the previous page simpler to maintain (and check for older browsers), it should be written as a function:

function loadXMLDoc(filename)
{
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
  {
  xhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
else // code for IE5 and IE6
  {
  xhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }
xhttp.open("GET",filename,false);
xhttp.send();
return xhttp.responseXML;
}

The function above can be stored in the <head> section of an HTML page, and called from a script in the page.

Note The function described above, is used in all XML document examples in this tutorial!

An External JavaScript for loadXMLDoc()

To make the code above even easier to maintain, and to make sure the same code is used in all pages, we store the function in an external file.

The file is called "loadxmldoc.js", and will be loaded in the head section of an HTML page. Then, the loadXMLDoc() function can be called from a script in the page.

The following example uses the loadXMLDoc() function to load books.xml:

Example

<html>
<head>
<script src="loadxmldoc.js">
</script>
</head>
<body>

<script>
var xmlDoc=loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

code goes here.....

</script>

</body>
</html>

Try it yourself »

How to get the data from the XML file, will be explained in the next chapters.

The loadXMLString() Function

To make the code from the previous page simpler to maintain (and check for older browsers), it should be written as a function:

function loadXMLString(txt)
{
if (window.DOMParser)
  {
  parser=new DOMParser();
  xmlDoc=parser.parseFromString(txt,"text/xml");
  }
else // code for IE
  {
  xmlDoc=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
  xmlDoc.async=false;
  xmlDoc.loadXML(txt);
  }
return xmlDoc;
}

The function above can be stored in the <head> section of an HTML page, and called from a script in the page.

Note The function described above, is used in all XML string examples in this tutorial!

An External JavaScript for loadXMLString()

We have stored the loadXMLString() function in a file called "loadxmlstring.js".

Example

<html>
<head>
<script src="loadxmlstring.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<script>
text="<bookstore>"
text=text+"<book>";
text=text+"<title>Everyday Italian</title>";
text=text+"<author>Giada De Laurentiis</author>";
text=text+"<year>2005</year>";
text=text+"</book>";
text=text+"</bookstore>";

var xmlDoc=loadXMLString(text);

code goes here.....

</script>
</body>
</html>

Try it yourself »

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