How do I load the contents of a text file into a javascript variable?

Question

I have a text file in the root of my web app http://localhost/foo.txt and I'd like to load it into a variable in javascript.. in groovy I would do this:

def fileContents = 'http://localhost/foo.txt'.toURL().text;
println fileContents;

How can I get a similar result in javascript?

Answer 1

XMLHttpRequest, i.e. AJAX, without the XML.

The precise manner you do this is dependent on what JavaScript framework you're using, but if we disregard interoperability issues, your code will look something like:

var client = new XMLHttpRequest();
client.open('GET', '/foo.txt');
client.onreadystatechange = function() {
  alert(client.responseText);
}
client.send();

Normally speaking, though, XMLHttpRequest isn't available on all platforms, so some fudgery is done. Once again, your best bet is to use an AJAX framework like jQuery.

One extra consideration: this will only work as long as foo.txt is on the same domain. If it's on a different domain, same-origin security policies will prevent you from reading the result.

Answer 2

If your input was structured as XML, you could use the importXML function. (More info here at quirksmode).

If it isn't XML, and there isn't an equivalent function for importing plain text, then you could open it in a hidden iframe and then read the contents from there.

Answer 3

here is how I did it in jquery:

jQuery.get('http://localhost/foo.txt', function(data) {
    alert(data);
});