AJAX XML
AJAX can be used to communicate interactively with XML files.
AJAX XML Example
The following example will demonstrate how a web page uses AJAX to read information from an XML file:
Example
<html><!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script>
function loadXMLDoc(url)
{
var xmlhttp;
var txt,x,xx,i;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
{
txt="<table border='1'><tr><th>Title</th><th>Artist</th></tr>";
x=xmlhttp.responseXML.documentElement.getElementsByTagName("CD");
for (i=0;i<x.length;i++)
{
txt=txt + "<tr>";
xx=x[i].getElementsByTagName("TITLE");
{
try
{
txt=txt + "<td>" + xx[0].firstChild.nodeValue + "</td>";
}
catch (er)
{
txt=txt + "<td> </td>";
}
}
xx=x[i].getElementsByTagName("ARTIST");
{
try
{
txt=txt + "<td>" + xx[0].firstChild.nodeValue + "</td>";
}
catch (er)
{
txt=txt + "<td> </td>";
}
}
txt=txt + "</tr>";
}
txt=txt + "</table>";
document.getElementById('txtCDInfo').innerHTML=txt;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="txtCDInfo">
<button onclick="loadXMLDoc('cd_catalog.xml')">Get CD info</button>
</div>
</body>
</html>Run Instance»
Click the "Run Instance" button to view the online instance
Example analysis - loadXMLDoc() function
When the user clicks the "Get CD Information" button above, the loadXMLDoc() function will be executed.
The loadXMLDoc() function creates an XMLHttpRequest object, adds functions that execute when the server response is ready, and sends the request to the server.
When the server response is ready, an HTML table is built, the nodes (elements) are extracted from the XML file, and finally the txtCDInfo placeholder is updated with the HTML table that has been populated with XML data:
{
var xmlhttp;
var txt,xx,x,i;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
{
txt="<table border='1'><tr><th>Title</th><th>Artist</th></tr>";
x=xmlhttp.responseXML.documentElement.getElementsByTagName("CD");
for (i=0;i<x.length;i++)
{
txt=txt + "<tr>";
xx=x[i].getElementsByTagName("TITLE");
{
try
{
txt=txt + "<td>" + xx[0].firstChild.nodeValue + "</td>";
}
catch (er)
{
txt=txt + "<td> </td>";
}
}
xx=x[i].getElementsByTagName("ARTIST");
{
try
{
txt=txt + "<td>" + xx[0].firstChild.nodeValue + "</td>";
}
catch (er)
{
txt=txt + "<td> </td>";
}
}
txt=txt + "</tr>";
}
txt=txt + "</table>";
document.getElementById('txtCDInfo').innerHTML=txt;
}
}
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
AJAX Server Page
The server page used in the above example is actually a file named "cd_catalog .xml" XML file.
