What is the method for extracting the innerHTML from an XML document using AJAX?

When an AJAX query is made, a XML file is returned. Although I am able to "parse" the file, extracting the "innerHTML" (or in this case "innerXML") of an element poses a challenge.

If an XML element, such as "content", contains only text, retrieving it is simple using content.childNodes[0].nodeValue (assuming that content refers to the XML element "content"). However, if that element contains other nested elements:

<stackoverflow reason="tribute to this page">
   <content>
      <div><span><p>Some more HTML elements</p></span></div>
   </content>
</stackoverflow>

The task at hand is to transfer the content within the <content> element to an existing <div> on the webpage. How can this be accomplished?

For example:

myDiv.innerHTML = content.innerHTML;

Answer №1

To ensure proper rendering of HTML content, it is recommended to enclose the HTML within CDATA tags:

<website purpose="tribute to this website">
   <content>
      <![CDATA[<div><span><p>Additional HTML elements</p></span></div>]]>
   </content>
</website>

Then you can easily populate your element using innerHTML.

document.getElementById('target').innerHTML = content.childNodes[0].nodeValue;

Answer №2

If you need to convert the xml node back into a string representation, you can utilize XMLSerializer and then easily copy it using innerHTML:

element.innerHTML = 
  (new XMLSerializer()).serializeToString(content.childNodes[0].nodeValue)

It's worth noting that the solution recommended by phihag appears to be the more secure option. However, without testing, I cannot guarantee browser compatibility for either method.

Answer №3

innerHTML may seem convenient, but it is best to avoid using it altogether. Instead, opt for the traditional DOM functions:

myElement.appendChild(document.importNode(newContent));

Answer №4

A great approach is to utilize both the cloneNode and appendChild methods:

myElement.appendChild(newContent.childNodes[0].cloneNode(true));

Answer №5

To utilize innerHTML, follow this guide on converting XML markup for the initial Element into a string

//Assuming oXML represents the xml document or xml object
var XMLString; 
oXML=oXML.getElementsByTagName('content')[0].firstChild;
//nodeType 1-Element,2-Attr,3-Text.....
while(oXML.nodeType!=1){oXML=oXML.nextSibling;}
//Implementation varies for IE and Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, etc.
XMLString=(oXML.xml)?oXML.xml:(new XMLSerializer()).serializeToString(oXML);
myDiv.innerHTML=XMLString;

The while loop helps identify the first element within the content tag by bypassing text nodeType complications. Firefox includes the text nodeType, whereas IE6 does not exhibit the same behavior when no text is present within the text node.

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