Question

Imagine you have a data.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<root>
    <item>value1</item>
    <item>value2</item>
    <item>value3</item>
</root>

I’m trying to store all the data config into a single variable in order to use it in my .js code using this:

$(document).ready(function() {
        'use strict';
        jQuery.extend({
            getValues: function(url) {
            var result = null;
            $.ajax({
                url: url,
                type: 'get',
                dataType: 'xml',
                async: false,
                success: function(data) {
                result = data;
                }
            });
               return result;
            }
        });

        results = $.getValues("data.xml");
        console.log(results);
});

If I refresh the page I get in results variable a Document object with fields like URL, baseURI, body …

If I refresh again I get in results a #document object with the data from the data.xml:

<root>
    <item>value1</item>
    <item>value2</item>
    <item>value3</item>
</root>

So the type of object returned changes each time someone goes to the url.

I have two questions about this:

1. How can I make the returned value always #document? (which contains the data from the .xml file)

2. How can I access to an element from #document?

I have tried using:

console.log(results.root.item);
console.log(results.find("item"));

But both give me errors.

Maybe there is a better way to do this (meaning reading xml data into a single variable).

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You are returning the result before the ajax request has finished.
You have to wait for the ajax to return, then call a callback function:

$(document).ready(function() {
        'use strict';
        jQuery.extend({
            getValues: function(url, callback) {
            var result = null;
            $.ajax({
                url: url,
                type: 'get',
                dataType: 'xml',
                async: false,
                success: function(data) {
                    callback.call(this, data);
                }
            });
            }
        });

        $.getValues("data.xml",function(data){
             console.log(data);
        });

});