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XML Tutorial

XML HOME XML Introduction XML How to use XML Tree XML Syntax XML Elements XML Attributes XML Namespaces XML Display XML HttpRequest XML Parser XML DOM XML XPath XML XSLT XML XQuery XML XLink XML Validator XML DTD XML Schema XML Server XML Examples XML Quiz XML Certificate

XML AJAX

AJAX Introduction AJAX XMLHttp AJAX Request AJAX Response AJAX XML File AJAX PHP AJAX ASP AJAX Database AJAX Applications AJAX Examples

XML DOM

DOM Introduction DOM Nodes DOM Accessing DOM Node Info DOM Node List DOM Traversing DOM Navigating DOM Get Values DOM Change Nodes DOM Remove Nodes DOM Replace Nodes DOM Create Nodes DOM Add Nodes DOM Clone Nodes DOM Examples

XPath Tutorial

XPath Introduction XPath Nodes XPath Syntax XPath Axes XPath Operators XPath Examples

XSLT Tutorial

XSLT Introduction XSL Languages XSLT Transform XSLT <template> XSLT <value-of> XSLT <for-each> XSLT <sort> XSLT <if> XSLT <choose> XSLT Apply XSLT on the Client XSLT on the Server XSLT Edit XML XSLT Examples

XQuery Tutorial

XQuery Introduction XQuery Example XQuery FLWOR XQuery HTML XQuery Terms XQuery Syntax XQuery Add XQuery Select XQuery Functions

XML DTD

DTD Introduction DTD Building Blocks DTD Elements DTD Attributes DTD Elements vs Attr DTD Entities DTD Examples

XSD Schema

XSD Introduction XSD How To XSD <schema> XSD Elements XSD Attributes XSD Restrictions

XSD Complex

XSD Elements XSD Empty XSD Elements Only XSD Text Only XSD Mixed XSD Indicators XSD <any> XSD <anyAttribute> XSD Substitution XSD Example

XSD Data

XSD String XSD Date XSD Numeric XSD Misc XSD Reference

Web Services

XML Services XML WSDL XML SOAP XML RDF XML RSS

References

DOM Node Types DOM Node DOM NodeList DOM NamedNodeMap DOM Document DOM Element DOM Attribute DOM Text DOM CDATA DOM Comment DOM XMLHttpRequest DOM Parser XSLT Elements XSLT/XPath Functions

The XMLHttpRequest Object


With the XMLHttpRequest object you can update parts of a web page, without reloading the whole page.


Try it Yourself - Examples

A simple XMLHttpRequest example
Create a simple XMLHttpRequest, and retrieve data from a TXT file.

Retrieve header information with getAllResponseHeaders()
Retrieve header information of a resource (file).

Retrieve specific header information with getResponseHeader()
Retrieve specific header information of a resource (file).

Retrieve the content of an ASP file
How a web page can communicate with a web server while a user type characters in an input field.

Retrieve content from a database
How a web page can fetch information from a database with the XMLHttpRequest object.

Retrieve the content of an XML file
Create an XMLHttpRequest to retrieve data from an XML file and display the data in an HTML table.


The XMLHttpRequest Object

The XMLHttpRequest object is used to exchange data with a server behind the scenes.

The XMLHttpRequest object is the developers dream, because you can:

  • Update a web page without reloading the page
  • Request data from a server after the page has loaded
  • Receive data from a server after the page has loaded
  • Send data to a server in the background


XMLHttpRequest Object Methods

Method Description
abort() Cancels the current request
getAllResponseHeaders() Returns header information
getResponseHeader() Returns specific header information
open(method,url,async,uname,pswd) Specifies the type of request, the URL, if the request should be handled asynchronously or not, and other optional attributes of a request

method: the type of request: GET or POST
url: the location of the file on the server
async: true (asynchronous) or false (synchronous)
send(string) send(string) Sends the request off to the server.

string: Only used for POST requests
setRequestHeader() Adds a label/value pair to the header to be sent

XMLHttpRequest Object Properties

Property Description
onreadystatechange Stores a function (or the name of a function) to be called automatically each time the readyState property changes
readyState Holds the status of the XMLHttpRequest. Changes from 0 to 4:
0: request not initialized
1: server connection established
2: request received
3: processing request
4: request finished and response is ready
responseText Returns the response data as a string
responseXML Returns the response data as XML data
status Returns the status-number (e.g. "404" for "Not Found" or "200" for "OK")
statusText Returns the status-text (e.g. "Not Found" or "OK")