Convert xml to string with jQuery

Question

I'm loading an xml file with jQuery ajax loader, and need to convert it to a string so that I can save it out again using PHP post variables. What is the best way to do this?

<script type='text/javascript'>

jQuery.ajax({
    type: "GET",
    url: "data.xml",
    dataType: "xml",
    success: parseXML
    });


function parseXML(xml) {

    var xml_string = jQuery(xml).text();  // (This doesn't work- returns tagless, unformatted text) 
    alert(xml_string);

}

</script>

Answer 1

Had the same problem - xmlString was returning an empty string. Adding [0] to jQuery selector helped to address XML-type object:

Your Javascript:

<script type='text/javascript'>
function xmlToString(xmlData) 
{
    var xmlString;
    //IE
    if (window.ActiveXObject){
        xmlString = xmlData.xml;
    }
    // code for Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, etc.
    else{
        xmlString = (new XMLSerializer()).serializeToString(xmlData[0]);
    }
    return xmlString;
}   
</script>

jQuery:

<script>
$(function(){ 
  xmlData = "<tag>just a sample here</tag>"; 
  xmlData= $(xmlData); 
  if (window.ActiveXObject){ 
    var xmlString = xmlData.xml; 
  } else {
    var oSerializer = new XMLSerializer(); 
    var xmlString = oSerializer.serializeToString(xmlData[0]);
  } 
  console.log(xmlString); 
})
</script>

Answer 2

Spent much time for this problem. With IE 9 above functions should work in another way. Because in IE9 xmlData[0].xml doesn't work (IE still likes jokes). And we must use XMLSerializer with IE v9 and higher (?!)

function xmlToString(xmlData) { // this functions waits jQuery XML 

    var xmlString = undefined;

    if (window.ActiveXObject){
        xmlString = xmlData[0].xml;
    }

    if (xmlString === undefined)
    {
        var oSerializer = new XMLSerializer();
        xmlString = oSerializer.serializeToString(xmlData[0]);
    }

    return xmlString;
}

And example of using it with jQuery 1.8.2 (1.6.4 works too).

   $.ajax(
        {
            type: type,
            url: url,
            data: values,
            dataType: 'html', //get response in plain text
            success: function(response) {    

                //transform it to jQuery XML DOM
                var xmlDoc = jQuery.parseXML(response);
                var xml = $(xmlDoc);

                //do some search and so on
                var divtag = xml.find('div[id="content"]');
                var divtxt = xmlToString(divtag);

                //consume it
                alert(divtxt);
                $('#main-content').html(divtxt);

            }
        });

Answer 3

You can use following function:

function getXmlString($xmlObj)
{   
    var xmlString="";
    $xmlObj.children().each(function(){
        xmlString+="<"+this.nodeName+">";
        if($(this).children().length>0){
            xmlString+=getXmlString($(this));
        }
        else
            xmlString+=$(this).text();
        xmlString+="</"+this.nodeName+">";
    });
    return xmlString;
}

Pass jquery xml object to this function

Answer 4

function serializeXML(xmldom) {
  if (typeof XMLSerializer != "undefined") {
    return (new XMLSerializer()).serializeToString(xmldom);
  } else if (typeof xmldom.xml != "undefined") {
    return xmldom.xml;
  } else {
    throw new Error("Could not serialize XML DOM.");
  }
}

// test
var xml = "<rss version='2.0'><channel><title>RSS Title</title></channel></rss>",
  xmlDoc = $.parseXML(xml),
  xmlStr = serializeXML(xmlDoc);
console.log("xmlStr: " + xmlStr);

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

Answer 5

In my case

if(window.ActiveXObject){
    xmlString = xmlData.xml;
}

Is not working. This is issue with IE10.

So I am able to fix this issue as follows:

if(window.ActiveXObject){
    xmlString = xmlData.attr('xml');
}

And working fine with any browser.

Answer 6

This worked for me (credit: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/tutorials/x-processxmljquerytut/section3.html):

 function getXmlAsString(xmlDom){
      return (typeof XMLSerializer!=="undefined") ? 
           (new window.XMLSerializer()).serializeToString(xmlDom) : 
           xmlDom.xml;
 }          

Here's an example that retrieves information about a column from a SharePoint list:

var soapEnv =
    "<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'> \
        <soapenv:Body> \
             <GetList xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/'> \
                <rowLimit>0</rowLimit> \
                <listName>Announcements</listName> \
            </GetList> \
        </soapenv:Body> \
    </soapenv:Envelope>";


jQuery.support.cors = true; 
$.ajax({
    url: "http://sharepoint/_vti_bin/lists.asmx",
    type: "POST",
    dataType: "xml",
    data: soapEnv,
    contentType: "text/xml; charset=\"utf-8\"",
    complete: function(xData){
        var xmlDoc = $.parseXML(xData.responseText), $xml = $(xmlDoc)           
        $Fields = $xml.find("Field");
        $field = $Fields.filter("Field[Name='Title']")[0];

        //Show the xml
        alert(getXmlAsString( xmlDoc ));
        alert(getXmlAsString( $field ));
    }
});