Parsing XML in javascript

Question

I have the following XML

<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>items</key>
        <array>
            <dict>
                <key>assets</key>
                <array>
                    <dict>
                        <key>kind</key>
                        <string>software-package</string>
                        <key>url</key>
                        <string>test1</string>
                    </dict>
                </array>
                <key>metadata</key>
                <dict>
                    <key>bundle-identifier</key>
                    <string>test</string>
                    <key>bundle-version</key>
                    <string>1.0</string>
                    <key>kind</key>
                    <string>software</string>
                    <key>subtitle</key>
                    <string>pixTraining</string>
                    <key>title</key>
                    <string>test</string>
                </dict>
            </dict>
        </array>
    </dict>
</plist>

if I use this XPath in an xml editor

/plist/dict/array/dict/dict/string[2]

I get back the version. But when I have the same code in JavaScript, I don't get any thing back. Here is my JavaScript code

var elements = doc.evaluate('//plist/dict/array/dict/dict/string[2]');

I don't get anything back. elements is coming as undefined. Any clues why?

Marcin · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-20 17:08:25Z

1

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Introduction_to_using_XPath_in_JavaScript

Here you have tutorial how to accomplish that.

Maybe you can check whether

var elements = doc.evaluate('//plist/');

is not null and then go futher.

answered Apr 20, 2011 at 17:08

Marcin

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Comments

Wayne · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-20 18:18:52Z

1

@Kooilnc is on the right track, but it seems that Firefox is picky about the XPathResult type that you specify. I would expect XPathResult.ANY_TYPE to work, but it does not. In my tests only UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE and ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE worked.

For example:

var result = doc.evaluate("/plist/dict/array/dict/dict/string[2]", 
                doc, null, XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null);
result.snapshotItem(0); // access the element

Note that evaluate returns a set of matched nodes. Use snapshotItem to access the first in the set. If your expression returns more than one node, you can iterate over them like this:

for (var i = 0; i < result.snapshotLength; i++) {
    console.log(result.snapshotItem(i));
}

1 Comment

allthenutsandbolts Over a year ago

Thanks for the response, seems like I can't use Level 3 DOM API in the javascript I'm using on Titanium. I get an an XPathResult not found. I will have to do it the old way which is iterating and checking for the nodes.

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