Parsing an XML Like String in JQuery

Question

I'm trying to parse a String which is XML like, and looks like this:

<note>
 <user>Username 1</user>
 <notes>Notes user wrote</notes>
</note>
<note>
 <user>Username 2</user>
 <notes>Notes user wrote</notes>
</note>

I'm a little bit confused with how to use the JQuery XML parser, I guess i'm used to SQL programming to access data.

What I want to do is print out the note based on the user name

so in SQL that'd be "SELECT notes FROM note WHERE user='Username 1'"

How do you do a selection like that in the JQuery XML Parser?

Edit what i'm trying:

For some reason this keeps returning Null:

 var xml = '<url>urlofpage1</url><notes>These notes should load!</notes>';
 var $xml = $(xml);

var $notes = $xml.find('url')
                 .filter(function() { return $(this).text() == 'urlofpage1' })
                 .closest('notes');

console.log('$notes: ', $notes.html());

mu is too short · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-16 05:20:25Z

1

First you'd want a jQuery object:

var xml = '<note><user>Username 1</user><notes>Notes user wrote</notes></note><note><user>Username 2</user><notes>Notes user wrote</notes></note>';
var $xml = $(xml);

Then you could use find and the :contains selector to find the particular <user> you wanted and then closest to go back up to the <note>:

var $notes = $xml.find('user:contains("Username 1")').closest('note');

For example (run with the console open): http://jsfiddle.net/ambiguous/3Yqqu/

You have to be careful with the :contains selector though as:

The matching text can appear directly within the selected element, in any of that element's descendants, or a combination thereof.

Hence the user:contains (a narrow search) followed by closest to go back up. You might want to add an extra filtering step if you're looking for strict equality rather than something LIKEish:

var $notes = $xml.find('user')
                 .filter(function() { return $(this).text() == 'Username 1' })
                 .closest('note');

And an example of this (console open again please): http://jsfiddle.net/ambiguous/fYNXx/

The thinking is similar to SQL in that you're working with sets most of the time. However, you often chain things together more in the sense of shell pipeline than nested queries, sub-selects, and derived tables.

edited Aug 16, 2011 at 5:20

answered Aug 16, 2011 at 5:05

mu is too short

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10 Comments

Talon Over a year ago

Interesting good to know, i'll try it and see how it turns out, looks like I need to learn more about XML

Talon Over a year ago

Just tried it, for some reason I can't get $notes to print out as anything except for [object Object] any idea why?

mu is too short Over a year ago

@Talon: That's because it is an object rather than a string. Have a look at this: jsfiddle.net/ambiguous/F4UUh

Talon Over a year ago

I'm trying this: var xml = '<url>urlofpage1</url><notes>These notes should load!</notes>'; var $xml = $(xml); var $notes = $xml.find('url') .filter(function() { return $(this).text() == 'urlofpage1' }) .closest('notes'); console.log('$notes: ', $notes.html()); But it keeps returning Null

Talon Over a year ago

I also tried note.toSource() to try and print out the entire object and it seems to not print out properly.

|

no.good.at.coding · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-16 05:21:06Z

1

EDIT 1
mu is too short's answer seems much cleaner, I'd go with that

EDIT 2
That wasn't quite right. This works; you can see the example fiddle.

function getNotesByUser(xml, username){
    var notes
    $(xml).siblings('note').each(function(){
        if($(this).find('user').text() == username){
            notes = $(this).find('notes');
            return false; //break early
        }
    });
    return notes;
}

var xml = "<note><user>Username 1</user><notes>Notes user wrote</notes></note><note><user>Username 2</user><notes>Notes user2 wrote</notes></note>";

alert(getNotesByUser(xml, "Username 1").text());
alert(getNotesByUser(xml, "Username 2").text());

edited Aug 16, 2011 at 5:21

answered Aug 16, 2011 at 5:05

no.good.at.coding

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4 Comments

mu is too short Over a year ago

But :contains can be tricky to use so your version is worth seeing. I'd probably use find('user') instead of siblings to go straight to them and then closest('note') to go back up.

no.good.at.coding Over a year ago

Thanks. My first attempt wasn't quite right - without a tag enclosing notes, children obviously doesn't work. And I don't know what I was thinking when I used first instead of find!

mu is too short Over a year ago

There's also filter as a sort of "find that goes sideways".

no.good.at.coding Over a year ago

I remember now :) A little rusty after 3 months of doing nothing!

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