Question

Why is this simple thing not working in IE 9? It works just fine i FF and Chrome.

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
    function displayBusinessCardData() {
        var xmldata = document.getElementById("xmldata1");
        var bizCard = xmldata.getElementsByTagName("BusinessCard")[0];

        var name = "Name: " +  bizCard.getElementsByTagName("name")[0].firstChild.data;
        var phone1 = "Phone: " +  bizCard.getElementsByTagName("phone")[0].firstChild.data;
        var phone2 = "Phone: " + bizCard.getElementsByTagName("phone")[1].firstChild.data;
        var phone3 = "Phone: " + bizCard.getElementsByTagName("phone")[2].firstChild.data;
        var email = "Email: " + bizCard.getElementsByTagName("email")[0].firstChild.data;

        alert("BusinessCard Data: \n\n" + name + "\n" + phone1 + "\n" + phone2 + "\n" + phone3 + "\n" + email);
    }
</script>

<xml id="xmldata1" style="display:none">
<BusinessCard>
    <name>Joe Marini</Name>
    <phone type="mobile">[phone]</phone>
    <phone type="work">[phone]</phone>
    <phone type="fax">[phone]</phone>
    <email>[e-mail]</email>
</BusinessCard>
</xml>

<a href="javascript:displayBusinessCardData()">Show Business Card Data</a>
</body>

It fails with “xmldata.getElementsByTagName(“BusinessCard”)[0];” with the result being null for bizCard.

Answer 1

I think it is because in IE, elements with a non-standard tag name cannot contain other elements.

Try once xmldata.canHaveChildren, it should return false.