What is the best method to detect xml in JavaScript

Question

What is the best method to detect xml in JavaScript

e.g. is it possible to detect the mime type of a document - particularly if it is text/xml in JavaScript.

this needs to work in Chrome.

thanks,

Josh

Answer 1

You can't determine what the mime-type is with Javascript. I would recommend doing checks on the data returned to see if it is valid XML before you try to parse it. (I'm only assuming what you're trying to do. I can provide a more rigid example if you clarify what your goal is.)

Answer 2

If you are using XMLHttpRequest to get this data, then you can simply check for the Content-Type header using the getResponseHeader method (granted that the server sends the appropriate headers).

var getFile = function(address, responseHandler) {
  var req = new XMLHttpRequest();  

  req.open('get', address, true);  
  req.onreadystatechange = responseHandler;
  req.send(null);  
}

var responseHandler = function(resp) {
  if ( this.readyState < 4 ) { return; }
  console.log(this.getResponseHeader("Content-Type"));
};

getFile("http://zebrakick.com/some/file", responseHandler);

(I seem to be using this code sample a lot...)