Convert XML to HTML using jquery/javascript

Question

I've some XML which i need to show in a div as text.
Can we convert this XML to format like below.

<root>
<field>
  <label>Have you invested before</label>
  <value>No</value>
</field>
<field>
  <label>Are you looking to invest in the next 6 months</label>
  <value>Maybe</value>
</field>
<field>
  <label>What investments are you interested in</label>
  <value>Carbon Credits, Green Investments</value>
</field>
<field>
  <label>How much are you looking to invest</label>
  <value>£50,000 -  £100,000</value>
</field>
</root>

Output should be like as below:

Have you invested before : No
Are you looking to Invest in the next 6 months : Maybe
What Investments are you interested in : Carbon Credits,Green Investments
How much are you looking to invest : £50,000 - £100,000

Is this possible using Jquery/javascript.??

And it should be rendering like below HTML.

<div class="how-to">
<div class="how-text">
    <h3>Your Requirements</h3>
        <ul class="requirements">         
<li><label class="field-l">Have you invested before:</label> <span>No</span></li>         
<li><label class="field-l">Are you looking to Invest in the next 6 months:
</label>      <span>Maybe</span></li>         
<li><label class="field-l">What Investments are you interested in:</label> 
<span>Carbon  Credits,Green Investments</span></li>
 <li><label class="field-l">How much are you looking to invest:</label>
  <span>£50,000 -  £100,000</span></li>
      <li class="link-pad"><a href="index.html" class="requirements">
     Change  your requirements</a></li>
    </ul>
<div class="clear"></div>
 </div>
  </div>

Step 1: validate your xml

Your xml is not valid. You can check it it's valid or not, for example, in an online validator. There are lots of them, this one i linked is only an example.

For this answer i will suposse we have some xml as follows

<root>
  <field>
      <label>Have you invested before</label>
      <value>No</value>
  </field>
  <field>
      <label>Are you looking to invest in the next 6 months</label>
      <value>Maybe</value>
  </field>
  <field>
      <label>What investments are you interested in</label>
      <value>Carbon Credits, Green Investments</value>
  </field>
  <field>
      <label>How much are you looking to invest</label>
      <value>£50,000 -  £100,000</value>
  </field>
</root>

Step2: get the xml, maybe through ajax

I suposse this is obvious but i will include here anyway.

$.get('/url_of_the_xml_resource')
  .done(function(data){
    // this function is executed if the request was sucessfull
  })
  .fail(function(){
    // this function is executed if the request fails
  })
;

Step 3: parse the xml

You can use jQuery's $.parseXML to parse it and convert the raw data into a XML document

$.get('/url_of_the_xml_resource')
  .done(function(data){
    // parse the xml
    data = $.parseXML(data);
    //
    // do anything you want with the parsed data
  })
  .fail(function(){
    alert('something went wrong!');
  })
;

Step 4: play with the data

Now we have a xml document to play with. The following snipnet assumes we have a definition list, <dl> tag, in our HTML layout, and is supossed to be executed after the data is parsed, like in the previous step.

// first we query the HTML document to get the list element
// and store it for later use
var list = $('dl');
// data is a xml document now, so we query it...
$(data)
  // and search for all <field> elements
  .find('field')
  // now we can play with each <field>
  .each(function(index, element){
    // as example we query & store the field
    var field = $(element)
    // get the values we want
    var label = field.find('label').text()
    var value = field.find('value').text()
    // and append some html in the <dl> element we stored previously
    list
      .append('<dt>'+label+': </dt>')
      .append('<dd>'+value+'</dd>')
    ;
  })
;

Conclusion

jQuery is what you want to use. It's chainable nature makes transversing the DOM like cutting butter. I hope this answer to be useful for you.

As aditional reference, see the full example on jsfiddle

Comments

[Makoto]

Care to add some meat to this answer?

[11684]

Wow. This is one of the most complete answers I've seen on SO (not counting Jon Skeet's).

[Makoto]

Much, much better. Well written!

[Mayank Pathak]

Thanks laconbass..I generated XML this way and it worked for me..thanks mate.. :)