Question

I have this xml in string format. I want to get the attribute called “ColumnName”. Please help me with finding and returning it in array. Bellow is the format

<EntitySet Name="Department" VersionConflict="False"  xmlns:">

<StringAttribute Caption="Department Number" ColumnName="fdeptno" Description="dept no" IsPrimaryKeyMember="True" IsRequired="True" MaxLength="2" Name="fdeptno" RequiredAdherenceMessage="EMPTY_ACCT(Department Number)" />
<StringAttribute Caption="Description" ColumnName="fdeptdesc" Description="department" IsRequired="True" MaxLength="35" Name="fdeptdesc" RequiredAdherenceMessage="DESCR_EMPTY" />
<StringAttribute Caption="Holiday Pay Acct" ColumnName="fholaccno" ContentType="GeneralLedgerAccount" Description="holiday" IsRequired="True" MaxLength="25" Name="fholaccno" RequiredAdherenceMessage="HOLIDAY_PAY_ACC">
  <StringAttribute.Format>
    <MaskFormat Mask="AAAAA-AA" />
  </StringAttribute.Format>
  <PropertyReference EntityName="glmast" Filter="GLMAST.flinactive=0" Name="prdept_fholaccno" ObjectName="ChartofAccountsMaintenance" PropertyName="fcacctnum" UseIndexView="True" />
</StringAttribute>
<StringAttribute Caption="Other Pay Acct" ColumnName="fothaccno" ContentType="GeneralLedgerAccount" Description="other" IsRequired="True" MaxLength="25" Name="fothaccno" RequiredAdherenceMessage="OTHER_PAY_EMPTY">
  <StringAttribute.Format>
    <MaskFormat Mask="AAAAA-AA" />
  </StringAttribute.Format>
  <PropertyReference EntityName="glmast" Filter="GLMAST.flinactive=0" Name="prdept_fothaccno" ObjectName="ChartofAccountsMaintenance" PropertyName="fcacctnum" UseIndexView="True" />
</StringAttribute>
<StringAttribute Caption="Sick Pay Acct" ColumnName="fsickaccno" ContentType="GeneralLedgerAccount" Description="sick" IsRequired="True" MaxLength="25" Name="fsickaccno" RequiredAdherenceMessage="SICK_PAY_EMPTY">
  <StringAttribute.Format>
    <MaskFormat Mask="AAAAA-AA" />
  </StringAttribute.Format>
  <PropertyReference EntityName="glmast" Filter="GLMAST.flinactive=0" Name="prdept_fsickaccno" ObjectName="ChartofAccountsMaintenance" PropertyName="fcacctnum" UseIndexView="True" />
</StringAttribute>
<StringAttribute Caption="Vacation Pay Acct" ColumnName="fvacaccno" ContentType="GeneralLedgerAccount" Description="vacation" IsRequired="True" MaxLength="25" Name="fvacaccno" RequiredAdherenceMessage="VAC_PAY_ACCT_EMPTY">
  <StringAttribute.Format>
    <MaskFormat Mask="AAAAA-AA" />
  </StringAttribute.Format>
  <PropertyReference EntityName="glmast" Filter="GLMAST.flinactive=0" Name="prdept_fvacaccno" ObjectName="ChartofAccountsMaintenance" PropertyName="fcacctnum" UseIndexView="True" />
</StringAttribute>
<IntegerAttribute ColumnName="identity_column" Name="identity_column" />
<ByteArrayAttribute ColumnName="timestamp_column" Name="timestamp_column" Searchable="False" />
<StringAttribute Caption="facility" ColumnName="fac" Description="facility" MaxLength="20" Name="fac" />

Answer 1

A way to do this is to the DOMParser to parse the string. Then, you can loop through all elements and check the attributes. I prefer to use querySelectorAll though, because the resulting code is concise and effective:

var xmlDoc = (new DOMParser).parseFromString(xml_string, 'text/xml');
var elementsWithAttr = xmlDoc.querySelectorAll('[ColumnName]');
var values = [].map.call(elementsWithAttr, function(element) {
    return element.attributes.getNamedItem('ColumnName').nodeValue;
});

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/hm3Cn/ (I’ve taken your XML input, made it valid by removing xmlns:" at the first line, and appending </EntitySet> at the end).