Cross Browser loading and handling XML documents without XMLHttp request

@itgate_irAug 17.2008

how can i load and handle XML documents without XMLHttp Request in javascript that support famous browsers like:

FireFox2, 3, IE 6, 7, opera9+, Safari

to post a comment

12 Comments(s) _↴

@felgallAug 17.2008 — #The same way you would fly to the moon without using a spacecraft.

If you don't want to use the only way provided for reading XML into JavaScript then you are not going to be able to read XML into JavaScript.

@itgate_irauthorAug 17.2008 — #i mean with command like:

[CODE] oXmlDom = document.implementation.createDocument("","",null);
 oXmlDom.load("something.xml");[/CODE]

[CODE]
 function createDocument() {
 var aVersions = [ "MSXML2.DOMDocument.5.0",
 "MSXML2.DOMDocument.4.0","MSXML2.DOMDocument.3.0",
 "MSXML2.DOMDocument","Microsoft.XmlDom"
 ];
 
   for (var i = 0; i < aVersions.length; i++) {
   try {
   var oXmlDom = new ActiveXObject(aVersions[i]);
   return oXmlDom;
   } catch (oError) {
   //Do nothing
   } 
   }
   throw new Error("MSXML is not installed.");
   }
 [/CODE]

@A1ien51Aug 18.2008 — #I think you ansered your own question....I am not sure why you would use that over the XMLHttpRequest object. Guessing you get a null error and think another way will fix it OR you have requirements that are very strict and not smart. ?

Eric

@itgate_irauthorAug 18.2008 — #you are right

i mean working with xml,xpath, xslt

i write a code for XML

it works in IE and Firefox and not in opera!

i don't know how to deal with xpath , xslt in javascript ??

@slaughtersAug 18.2008 — #How does "new ActiveXObject(aVersions[i]);" work in Firefox ?

@itgate_irauthorAug 19.2008 — #it is only for IE not firefox

buy i don't know how to handle xsl, xml with them?

@slaughtersAug 19.2008 — #Then your statements are kind of confusing and your posts title a little mis-leading.

I wish you luck.

@Angry_Black_ManAug 20.2008 — #In communist russia, XML documents handle you!

How does "new ActiveXObject(aVersions[i]);" work in Firefox ?[/QUOTE]

truth.

@rnd_meAug 20.2008 — #it is only for IE not firefox

buy i don't know how to handle xsl, xml with them?[/QUOTE]

you are in luck.

i found a simple example i worked out a couple years back.

just tested it in ff3 and ie7, still works.

it simply transforms the two files and displays the output.

this demo use a xsl template named "combo.xsl".

it is meant to transform an rss feed into a drop-down box.

combo.xsl:

[CODE]<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
 <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 
  <xsl:output method="html"/>
 
  <xsl:template match="/rss/channel">
 
 <body style="background-color: black; margin: 0px">
 <select onchange='window.open(this.value, "")'> 
 
 <xsl:apply-templates select="item"/>
 
 </select>
 </body>
 </xsl:template>
 
 <xsl:template match="/rss/channel/item">
 
 <option value="{link}"><xsl:value-of select="title" /></option>
 
  </xsl:template>
 
 </xsl:stylesheet>[/CODE]

the xsldemo.html page:

[CODE]<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
 <head>
 <title>dan's client-side xsl demo</client>	</title>
 </head>
 <body onLoad="runTransform('combo.xsl', 'you can change this to another xsl file path');" >
 
 <div id="dump">
 You need to :		<br />
 1. pass the right xslt file path to the runTransform funtion. <br />
 2. put the url of the xml document after a ? in the page url: the 'querystring' 
 </div>
 
  <script type="text/javascript">
   function runTransform(ssUrl ){
   var turl = window.location.search.substr(1); //load the data document url from the queryString
 
   if(document.implementation && document.implementation.createDocument){
   // Mozilla
 
   var xsltProcessor = new XSLTProcessor();
 
   // load the xslt file
   var x= new XMLHttpRequest();
   x.open("GET", ssUrl , false);
   x.send(null);
 
   // get the XML document
   xslStylesheet = x.responseXML;
   xsltProcessor.importStylesheet(xslStylesheet);
 
   // load the xml file
   x= new XMLHttpRequest();
   x.open("GET", turl, false);
   x.send(null);
 
   var xmlSource = x.responseXML;
 
   //transform
   var resultDocument = xsltProcessor.transformToFragment(xmlSource, document);
   document.getElementById("dump").innerHTML= "";
   document.getElementById("dump").appendChild(resultDocument);
 
   }else if(window.ActiveXObject){
   // IE
 
   // Load XML
   xml = new ActiveXObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument");
   xml.async = false
 
   xml.load(turl)
 
   // Load XSL
   xsl = new ActiveXObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument");
   xsl.async = false
   xsl.load(ssUrl )
 
 
   // Transform				document.getElementById("dump").innerHTML=xml.transformNode(xsl);
   }else{
   alert("XSLT not available...");
   }
 
   }
 
  </script>
 </body>
 </html>
 [/CODE]

you will have to provide the rss file to use, and put its (same-domain) url in the querystring when viewing the html page.

@slaughtersAug 20.2008 — #Ahhh...

That jogged my memory. Here is an old Quirksmode article on importing XML documents:

http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/importxml.html

Should work in IE, Mozilla (Netscape), Opera, and Firefox.

For Safari support you'll need to use XMLHttpRequest :

http://developer.apple.com/internet/webcontent/xmlhttpreq.html

(which should also work for IE, Mozilla (Netscape), Opera, and Firefox ? )

@HoboScriptAug 20.2008 — #Question... why are you trying to apply xslt, xml and xpath in javascript? Is this for some kind of PoC thing?

Just curious.

@rnd_meAug 20.2008 — #Ahhh...

That jogged my memory.[/QUOTE]
lol-

tell me about it.

its like: what ever happened to xslt?

hell, whatever happened to xml in general?

where is soap and wap and rfd? all i see is rss...

i though this stuff was 'the next big thing' around 2006.

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