Home/ Questions/Q 6198273
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-24T03:58:04+00:00

I am learning this stuff so my code might not be pretty… but would

  • 0

I am learning this stuff so my code might not be pretty… but would appreciate some help 🙂

I have not written the following code but got it from somewhere else off the web:

function text_xml()
{
    realXmlUrl="http://jumac.com/del_me_fruits.xml";
    http_request = false;
    http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
    if (http_request.overrideMimeType)
    {
        http_request.overrideMimeType('text/xml');
    }

    http_request.onreadystatechange = this.response_xml;
    http_request.open('GET', realXmlUrl, true);
    http_request.send(null);
    xmlDoc = http_request.responseXML;
}

function response_xml()
{
    if (self.http_request.readyState == 4)
    {
        document.getElementById("ex").appendChild(document.createTextNode(" Done!"));
        getFruits(http_request.responseText);
    }
}

function getFruits(xml) {
  var fruits = xml.getElementsByTagName("fruits")[0];
  if (fruits) {
    var fruitsNodes = fruits.childNodes;
    if (fruitsNodes) {
      for (var i = 0; i < fruitsNodes.length; i++) {
        var name = fruitsNodes[i].getAttribute("name");
        var colour = fruitsNodes[i].getAttribute("colour");
        alert("Fruit " + name + " is coloured " + colour);
      }
    }
  }
}

And the error I am getting is:

Error: xml.getElementsByTagName is not a function

What am I doing wrong?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    responseText is a string, not an XML. Are you looking for responseXML?

    Update

    If your script is loaded from a different domain than the XML document you’re loading (http://jumac.com/del_me_fruits.xml), then XMLHttpRequest will act differently depedning on the browser.

    On IE 8, it will pop up a warning window complaining that “The page is accessing information that is not under its control. This poses a security risk. Do you want to continue?” if you click yes, then it will work correctly (i.e., the XML will load and the alerts for the fruits will be displayed).

    On Chrome 12, however, it doesn’t pop anything and it will say that “XMLHttpRequest cannot load http://jumac.com/del_me_fruits.xml. Origin http://localhost:54671 is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin.” Because of this error, the responseXML property of the request object will be null and you’ll see the error you have.

    There are other questions regarding cross-domain XMLHttpRequest where you may find how to solve your issues, such as Cross-site XMLHttpRequest and http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/xhr.html.

    <body>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        function text_xml() {
            realXmlUrl = "http://jumac.com/del_me_fruits.xml";
            http_request = false;
            http_request = new XMLHttpRequest();
            if (http_request.overrideMimeType) {
                http_request.overrideMimeType('text/xml');
            }

            http_request.onreadystatechange = this.response_xml;
            http_request.open('GET', realXmlUrl, true);
            http_request.send(null);
            xmlDoc = http_request.responseXML; // this doesn't have anything
        }

        function response_xml() {
            if (self.http_request.readyState == 4) {
                document.getElementById("ex").appendChild(document.createTextNode(" Done!"));
                getFruits(http_request.responseXML);
            }
        }

        function getFruits(xml) {
            var fruits = xml.getElementsByTagName("fruits")[0];
            if (fruits) {
                var fruitsNodes = fruits.childNodes;
                if (fruitsNodes) {
                    for (var i = 0; i < fruitsNodes.length; i++) {
                        var name = fruitsNodes[i].getAttribute("name");
                        var colour = fruitsNodes[i].getAttribute("colour");
                        alert("Fruit " + name + " is coloured " + colour);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    </script>

    <input type="button" value="Click me" onclick="text_xml();" />
    <p><div id="ex"></div></p>
</body>
    • 0