Finding an XML node by namespace with jQuery

Question

We've got an XML file where some nodes are namespaced. Basically the file looks like this:

<foo>
    <bar xmlns:x="http://www.example.com/">
        <x:bla foo="bar" />
    </bar>
</foo>

What we want to achieve is that we want to select the x:bla node, but unfortunately we don't know in advance the node's name, just its namespace. Hence all we know is basically that it's a x:* node.

Now, the question is: How do we select this node by using jQuery's find method once we have parsed the XML file by using $.parseXML?

Using $(xml).find("x\\:bla, bla") works, but only if I know that the node is called bla.

You can find a possible solution may be [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2563101/how-to-find-extract-data-from-xml-with-jquery) — VicoMan, Nov 13 '12 at 09:23
Thanks for the hint, but this is not about namespacing at all (or did I miss something?). — Golo Roden, Nov 13 '12 at 09:58
Maybe this will help: [link](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/853740/jquery-xml-parsing-with-namespaces) [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/853740/jquery-xml-parsing-with-namespaces — Oliver, Nov 13 '12 at 10:21

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 13 '12 at 10:36

5

You can use the attribute-contains jQuery-selector (see here)

xml.find("[nodeName*='x:']")

answered Nov 13 '12 at 10:36

Roberto Bez

66
4

3

No it doesn't. It ignores everything XML's namespaces are ... the creator of the XML fragment might change the local prefix at any time which will break your implementation ... even just upgrading his tools (which might use some kind of serialization behind the scenes) might break your app ... – Ingo Nov 13 '12 at 10:47
Hmmmm ... yes, this is basically true, but what other solution is there (at least in the scenario I'm at right now I don't care about the definitely existent, but subtle difference between the namespace and the local prefix being used for that namespace, hence it's okay)? – Golo Roden Nov 13 '12 at 11:52

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 13 '12 at 10:21

.parseXML() is giving me XML parse error, it seems it can't handle the <x:bla.. syntax.

So I just used jQuery with a custom selector to find elements by namespace:

$.expr[':'].findNS = function(obj, idx, meta, stack) {
    if (obj.nodeName.indexOf(meta[3].toUpperCase()+':') === 0) {
        return true;
    }
    return false;
};

var xml="<foo><bar><x:bla atr='attvalue' /></bar></foo>";

alert( $(xml).find(':findNS(x)').attr('atr') ); // Alerts 'attvalue'

See working demo

I was missing the xmlns-namespace definition, just updated that. — Golo Roden, Nov 13 '12 at 10:25

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

1

jQuery XML parsing with namespaces shows how to search for a literal namespace prefix. I would consider this an "evil" workaround, because it's no real XML processing. But it looks like jQuery does not support any real namespace handling. So you probably have to go for that solution.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

Community

1
1

answered Nov 13 '12 at 10:28

Achim

15,415
15
80
144

Eric Lange · Answer 4 · 2015-04-21T15:40:19.650

I had a similar need, and wanted to handle namespaces properly. Here is an example that worked for me. In this case, I am reading an RSS feed that contains MediaRSS properties.

var xmlDoc = $.parseXML(data);
var $xml = $(xmlDoc);
var ns = {};
$xml.find('item').each(function() {
    console.log('title = ' + $(this).find('title').text());
    console.log('link  = ' + $(this).find('link').text());
    console.log('thumb = ' + 
        $(this.getElementsByTagNameNS('http://search.yahoo.com/mrss','thumbnail')).attr('src'));
});

Finding an XML node by namespace with jQuery

4 Answers4