Loading xml with Jquery - why doesn't this work

Question

I have regular javascript code and am trying to utilize JQuery just to load and parse an xml file. I have the following:

function loadXml() {
  $(function() {
        $.ajax({
                type: "GET",
                url: "my_file.xml",
                dataType: "xml",
                success: parseXml

        });
    });

}

function parseXml() {
   alert("Parsing...");
}

When calling loadXml I cannot get the callback success function to execute. I am running this all locally and my_file.xml resides in the same directory as this javascript. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Most modern browsers will not allow the use of ajax to retrieve file:// based resources, even when the main document is run from the 'same' domain.

So in effect, you are running into the Same Origin Policy here.

Just set up a local http webserver and it should be no problem.

To explain the problem:

What if a document you downloaded into c:\users\foo\documents\CoolApp\ could read ANY file on the 'same' domain?

I guess you get my drift...

Answer 2

Also why are you using the DOMReady shortcut function inside of another function, that doesn't make any sense.

Remove the $(function() { }); That might even fix your problem...

If anything should be set up like this:

jQuery(function($) {
    loadXML()
});

Full code would look like this (with the my_file.xml residing in the exact same directory):

<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
<script>
function loadXml() {
        $.ajax({
                type: "GET",
                url: "my_file.xml",
                dataType: "xml",
                success: parseXml

        });
}

function parseXml(data) {
   alert(data);
}


$(function() {
loadXml();
});
</script>