Parse xml POST response in AJAX

Question

I'm doing a POST request in AJAX, and when I get the response, if I try to alert it for example, I get this:

[object XMLDocument]

here is my code:

$(document).ready(function(){
$("button").click(function(){
    var inputreg = document.getElementById("reginput").value;
    $.post("linkhere...",
    {
      RegistrationNumber: inputreg,
      username: "myusername",
      dataType: "xml"
    },
    function(data){
        alert(data);
    });
}); });

I'm trying to get a certain value from the xml, for example 'Description'..

edit: here is part of the response:

<vehicleData>
<ABICode>12345</ABICode>
<Description>lorem ipsum</Description></vehicleData>

`alert()` is **not** a debugging tool. Anything you pass to it will be converted to a string (via `Object.prototype.toString()`). Try `console.log(data)` instead (and open your console of course) — Phil, Jan 18 '18 at 23:21
Also, you're using [`$.post()`](https://api.jquery.com/jquery.post/) incorrectly. The `dataType` should be passed as the 3rd argument, eg `$.post(url, function(data) { ... }, 'xml')`. That is assuming you don't want to actually post `dataType=xml` in the request body — Phil, Jan 18 '18 at 23:24
Possible duplicate of [How can I display a JavaScript object?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/957537/how-can-i-display-a-javascript-object) — Phil, Jan 18 '18 at 23:25
ok so, if I do console.log(data), and open the console, I get the right xml response, but how can I get just a value from that xml? for example, the Description? — alexcr, Jan 18 '18 at 23:28
You can use DOM methods to traverse the document, same as you would for the HTML page. For example `data.getElementsByTagName('Description')` — Phil, Jan 18 '18 at 23:29
ok so, I've tryed to do 'alert(data.getElementsByTagName('Description'));' and I got '[object HTMLCollection]' — alexcr, Jan 18 '18 at 23:36
Really, `alert()` again? And you wonder why you can't see anything useful :\ — Phil, Jan 18 '18 at 23:37
ok than, I did console.log instead, and it shows it in my console, but it shows it among different data, and the part I'm interested in is at innerHTML: 'value I'm interested' , I also need to assign that value to a variable.. — alexcr, Jan 18 '18 at 23:40

Phil · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-19T00:13:34.247

1

Given the data is an XMLDocument, you can use DOM methods on it to navigate and retrieve values. For example

let description = data.querySelector('Description').textContent

Here's an example

// ignore this section, it's just setting up the XML document
//////////////////////////
const xml = `<vehicleData>
<ABICode>12345</ABICode>
<Description>lorem ipsum</Description></vehicleData>`

const parser = new DOMParser()
const data = parser.parseFromString(xml, 'text/xml')
//////////////////////////

console.info(data.querySelector('Description').textContent)

edited Jan 19 '18 at 00:13

answered Jan 18 '18 at 23:55

Phil

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I assigned const xml = data; and after did the code you suggested, but I'm getting 'Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'textContent' of null' inside my console.. – alexcr Jan 19 '18 at 00:11
@alexcr really not sure why you'd do that. The `xml` in my example is just to emulate the data returned by your AJAX request. The important part is `data.querySelector('Description')`. If that isn't working, then your XML isn't a good example of the _real_ data – Phil Jan 19 '18 at 00:15

Parse xml POST response in AJAX

1 Answers1