Load XML formatted files with different extension than .xml using XMLHttpRequest object

Question

I have this code that loads an xml file using javascript:

function getXmlDocument(sFile) {
var xmlHttp, oXML;

// try to use the native XML parser
try {
    xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xmlHttp.open("GET", sFile, false); // Use syncronous communication
    xmlHttp.send(null);
    oXML = xmlHttp.responseXML;
} catch (e) {
    // can't use the native parser, use the ActiveX instead
    xmlHttp = getXMLObject();
    xmlHttp.async = false;            // Use syncronous communication
    xmlHttp.resolveExternals = false;
    xmlHttp.load(sFile);
    oXML = xmlHttp;
}

// return the XML document object
return oXML;

}

If the extension of the 'sFile' is not .xml the function returns "" always. What should I do to fix this?

Answer 1

I think it's a problem on the server side: files with another extension than .xml don't get the MIME type of text/xml or something alike and the browser('s XML parser) doesn't recognize it as XML.

Be sure that your content is served with the correct MIME type by your server software. With Apache, you can change this in the .htaccess file. Dynamically generated XML should be sent with an appropriate Content-Type: header. In PHP, you can do this with the header function.