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Importing XML with JS

Jan 13, 2004 7:53 PM
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Quirksmode has a nice article on how to load XML and output formatted HTML in both IE and Mozilla. I still haven't found an application for this that I want to build; I'd rather do it on the server side and generate static HTML.


Comments: Importing XML with JS

We (http://doceus.com) used some XML tricks for a client's admin interface. They wanted to link documents to each other, and had a 4 layer system to thousands of documents. Far too many to load up on one page, and who wants a big nasty round trip to the server, saving the form state and such. Enter XML. A selection on a listbox fetches XML from the server and fills the next list box as they drill down through the hierarchy.

We also did an XML trick to build a tree interface similar to explorer, but it doesn't work quite as well.

For both we used XML Data Islands, a technique that isn't employed by the example that you link to, and we didn't supply an equivelant in Mozilla. I'm happy to see a cross-browser solution, perhaps I'll XML bind more things...

Posted by: David Kearns on January 13, 2004 8:16 PM | permalink

Well, it doesn't work in Safari and the alert("Hi, I'm a developer of non-standard JavaScript and I'd like to annoy you now") doesn't get covered (probably a false positive for mozilla).

Death to those who use this script on the public internet :)

You might as well just use Flash, with something like DENG. Man is that guy one sick puppy.

Posted by: Bob Ippolito on January 13, 2004 9:06 PM | permalink

Yeah, Flash makes a lot more sense because it's a rich client and you don't have to submit a freaking form every time you want to do something interesting.

I'll check out DENG ... it looks interesting.

Posted by: Joe Grossberg on January 14, 2004 11:01 AM | permalink

No more comments! Either someone has violated Godwin's Law, I'm tired of the discussion or, most likely, the ten-week window has closed. You can, however, contact me through email.