Using Javascript to retrieve from XML, getting an error?

Question

This gives me an error:

<!--
To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
and open the template in the editor.
-->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title></title>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">

        <script type="text/javascript">
            function loadXMLDoc(dname)
            {
                if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
                {
                    xhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
                }
                else
                {
                    xhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
                }
                xhttp.open("GET",dname,false);
                xhttp.send();
                return xhttp.responseXML;
            }

            var xmlDoc=loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

            var books = xmlDoc.getElementByTagName("title");

            for(var i = 0; i < books.length; i++){

                document.write(xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title")[i].childNodes[0].nodeValue + "<br />");
                document.write(xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("author")[i].childNodes[0].nodeValue + "<br />");
                document.write(xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("year")[i].childNodes[0].nodeValue + "<br />");

            }
        </script>

    </head>
    <body>
        <div>TODO write content</div>
    </body>
</html>

However if I remove the line: var books = xmlDoc.getElementByTagName("title"); and replace books.length to say '3' it works.

My XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!-- Edited by XMLSpy® -->
<bookstore>
<book category="cooking">
<title lang="en">Everyday Italian</title>
<author>Giada De Laurentiis</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>30.00</price>
</book>
<book category="children">
<title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>
<author>J K. Rowling</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>29.99</price>
</book>
<book category="web">
<title lang="en">XQuery Kick Start</title>
<author>James McGovern</author>
<author>Per Bothner</author>
<author>Kurt Cagle</author>
<author>James Linn</author>
<author>Vaidyanathan Nagarajan</author>
<year>2003</year>
<price>49.99</price>
</book>
<book category="web" cover="paperback">
<title lang="en">Learning XML</title>
<author>Erik T. Ray</author>
<year>2003</year>
<price>39.95</price>
</book>
</bookstore>

John Fisher · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-28 19:06:26Z

3

Might it just be that you left out the "s" in xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title")?

answered Jun 28, 2011 at 19:06

John Fisher

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Comments

Vinod Srivastav · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-12 11:51:12Z

1

Use XPath expression rather then getElementsByTagName:

var x=loadXMLDoc("books.xml");
var xml=x.responseXML;`<br/>
path="/bookstore/book/title";
var nodes=xml.evaluate(path, xml, null, XPathResult.ANY_TYPE, null);
var result=nodes.iterateNext();

while (result)
{
  document.write(result.childNodes[0].nodeValue);
  document.write("<br>");
  result=nodes.iterateNext();
}

edited Jun 12, 2019 at 11:51

answered Aug 18, 2014 at 8:07

Vinod Srivastav

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3 Comments

Konstantin V. Salikhov Over a year ago

This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post - you can always comment on your own posts, and once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post.

Vinod Srivastav Over a year ago

that was a suggestion.

Jonathan Over a year ago

Thanks for bringing me back to my question that's over 3 years old. Looking at how I used to code is so cringey :)

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