Getting node value from XML string using javascript

Question

I am trying to retrieve the 'code' and the 'value' from an XML string.

I have the following XML string:

<items>
    <item>
            <id>55</id>
            <attributes>
                <attribute>
                    <code>ID</code>
                    <value><![CDATA[55]]></value>
                </attribute>
                <attribute>
                    <code>Chip_ID</code>
                    <value><![CDATA[1]]></value>
                </attribute>
                <attribute>
                    <code>FilterKey</code>
                    <value><![CDATA[5]]></value>
                </attribute>
                <attribute>
                    <code>DateTime</code>
                    <value><![CDATA[22/12/2014 12:21:25]]></value>
                </attribute>
            </attributes>
    </item>
</items>

I then have the following javaScript to identify each node:

var xmlDocument = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLDOM');
xmlDocument.async = false;
xmlDocument.loadXML(pXML);

var oFirstNode = xmlDocument.documentElement;

var item = oFirstNode.childNodes[0]; //10 of these and they represent the items
 //alert("1 "+item.nodeName);

var ID = item.childNodes[0]; //one of these for each level-ID - NO CHILDREN
var attributes = item.childNodes[1]; //one of these for each level-attributes
//alert("2 " + ID.nodeName);
//alert("2 " + attributes.nodeName);

var attribute = attributes.childNodes[0];//4 of these for each level and they all have 2 children-code and value
//alert("3 " + attribute.nodeName);

var code = attribute.childNodes[0];
var value = attribute.childNodes[1];

alert(code.nodeName);
alert(value.nodeName);

I know I am at the correct node as the alert boxes are all giving the expected values.

I now want to retrieve the text for 'code' and 'value' eg the first entry should return code = ID value = ![CDATA[55]]

I have tried:

alert(code.nodeValue);
alert(value.nodeValue);

but they are both coming back null.

Solution

The .nodeValue property of a DOM element is always null.

Use .textContent instead.

alert(code.textContent);

I would also suggest using DOM traversal methods that don't require sifting through each individual child node by index:

var attributes = item.getElementsByTagName("attribute"); // should contain 4 elements

See also: nodeValue vs innerHTML and textContent. How to choose?

Comments

[Admin]

still no luck, it will not recognise getElementsByTagName

[JLRishe]

@user2970105 code.textContent seems to be working here: jsfiddle.net/o3cp2wc5 (I'm using jQuery to parse the XML since my browser doesn't support ActiveXObject). What version of IE are you using?

[JLRishe]

@user2970105 And here is an example of using .getElementsByTagName() to select elements: jsfiddle.net/onjs7kLm