Convert String to XML Document in JavaScript

Question

Saw this example on the jQuery examples page for Ajax:

var xmlDocument = [create xml document];
$.ajax({
  url: "page.php",
  processData: false,
  data: xmlDocument,
  success: someFunction
    });

How do I take a string like:

var t = '<foo><bar>something</bar></foo>';

And convert that to a XML DOM object? cross-browser?

UPDATE: Please see comments to karim79's answer.

Answer 1

Wrap it in a jQuery object. Then use normal DOM methods on it.

var t = $('<foo><bar>something</bar></foo>');

//loop over 'bar' nodes
t.find('bar').each(function () {
    alert($(this).text());
});

If you want to convert it back to a plain string (after modifying it for example) you can do it like so:

//then convert it back to a string
//for IE 
if (window.ActiveXObject) {
    var str = t.xml;
    alert(str);
 }
// code for Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, etc.
else {
   var str = (new XMLSerializer()).serializeToString(t);
   alert(str);
}

EDIT: The $.ajax manual says (on the processData option):

By default, data passed in to the data option as an object (technically, anything other than a string) will be processed and transformed into a query string, fitting to the default content-type "application/x-www-form-urlencoded". If you want to send DOMDocuments, or other non-processed data, set this option to false.

So if you're passing a jQuery object to the server, you'll need to set that to true, or omit it altogether (it is set to true by default). Hope that helped.

Answer 2

Just a heads up on calling find - if it's a top level element you need to use filter instead.

var t = $('<foo><bar>something</bar></foo>');

//loop over 'foo' nodes
t.filter('foo').each(function () {
  alert($(this).find('bar').text());
});

Answer 3

This solution does not work in IE6 can anyone suggest a workaround?

Answer 4

Convert XML to HTML see here http://java.pakcarid.com/Cpp.aspx?sub=418&ff=3275&topid=40&sls=25