how to open xml file into html page

[vikas sharmaa]

i have created a drop-down box in an html page using SELECT and OPTION tags. there are 3 options A, B, and C... correspondingly there are 3 xml files exists in the same directory. i want to display a.xml file on selecting A option, b.xml file for B option. i tried my best to achieve it but cant do it yet. i want to do it only using html and javascript and no server side code.. please help me out.

[Bear Bibeault]

vikas sharmaa wrote:i tried my best to achieve it but cant do it yet.

Without knowing what you've tried and how it failed, all we can do is guess.

[vikas sharmaa]

in the below code, i am trying to open first.xml on selecting first option in the html page. first.xml file is located in the current directory.

 

<form>
<select id="mymenu" size="1">
  <option value="first.xml">first</option>
  <option value="second.xml">second</option>
</select>
</form>



<script type="text/javascript">

var selectmenu=document.getElementById("mymenu")

selectmenu.onchange=function() {

 	var chosenoption=this.options[this.selectedIndex]
    if (chosenoption.value =="first.xml"){

		var xmlDoc = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
		 xmlDoc.load("first.xml");
		 xmlObj=xmlDoc.documentElement;

		 document.write(xmlObj.xml);

 	} else {
 		alert("second");
 	}
}



</script>

   

whats wrong in the above code. or, please tell me an alternative to open an xml file in the html page.

[Eric Pascarello]

well you can not use document.write after the page loads. You code will only work in IE. And lastly the onchange event does not fire if you select the same option in the select element.

Eric

[vikas sharmaa]

thanks eric. but my code is not working even after i remove document.write(xmlObj.xml) statement.

[Eric Pascarello]

Have you added debug statements to see what is happening?

Eric

[vikas sharmaa]

yes eric, i got the problem now. i added alert(xmlObj.xml) instead of document.write(xmlObj.xml) statement. the xml file is getting displayed into alert box. it means we cannot use document.write() inside onchange() event.

but now my query is what is the alternative of document.write() to display the contents on change event of the drop down box.

[Bear Bibeault]

You can either use DOM manipulation, or set the innerHTML property of parent elements.

[vikas sharmaa]

Thanks Bear, i tried like this: added document.getElementById('result').innerHTML = xmldoc.documentElement.xml; inplace of alert(xmldoc.documentElement.xml);

and at the end create a result id as follows:

but am getting an unknown run time error

find below the complete code:

<form>   
<select id="mymenu" size="1">   
  <option value="first.xml">first</option>   
  <option value="second.xml">second</option>   
</select>   
</form>   
  
  
  
<script type="text/javascript">   
  
var selectmenu=document.getElementById("mymenu")   
  
selectmenu.onchange=function() {   
  
    var chosenoption=this.options[this.selectedIndex]   
    if (chosenoption.value =="first.xml"){   
  
  var xmldoc=new ActiveXObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument.3.0");
  xmldoc.load("first.xml");
  alert(xmldoc.documentElement.xml);

	document.getElementById('result').innerHTML = xmldoc.documentElement.xml;
    } else {   
        alert("second");   
    }   
}   
  
   
</script>

<p id='result'>
</p>

    

please tell me what is wrong in the above code.

[Bear Bibeault]

You can't insert random XML into the DOM tree; only HTML.

If you want to display the XML document as text within the HTML DOM, you'll need to replace the < and > characters with their HTML Entity equivalents (&lt; and &gt;);

[vikas sharmaa]

Bear,

i am trying to replace the < and > characters with their HTML Entity equivalents (< and >) using replace function as shown below:

  
alert(xmldoc.documentElement.xml);

var xmlvar = xmldoc.documentElement.xml.replace("/</g", "<"); 
xmlvar = xmlvar.replace("/>/g", ">"); 

alert(xmlvar);

	document.getElementById('result').innerHTML = xmlvar;
  

but < and > characters are not getting replaced. i am getting the same alert message both the time.

please suggest.