w3schools
  
HOME HTML CSS XML JAVASCRIPT ASP PHP SQL MORE...   References Examples Forum About

XML DOM Browser Differences

« Previous Next Chapter »

Browser Differences in DOM Parsing

All modern browsers support the W3C DOM specification.

However, there are some differences between browsers. One important difference is:

  • The way they handle white-spaces and new lines

DOM - White Spaces and New Lines

XML often contains new line, or white space characters, between nodes. This is often the case when the document is edited by a simple editor like Notepad.

The following example (edited by Notepad) contains CR/LF (new line) between each line and two spaces in front of each child node:

<book>
  <title>Everyday Italian</title>
  <author>Giada De Laurentiis</author>
  <year>2005</year>
  <price>30.00</price>
</book>

Internet Explorer will NOT treat empty white-spaces, or new lines as text nodes, wile other browsers will.

The following code fragment displays how many child nodes the root element (of books.xml) has:

Example

xmlDoc=loadXMLDoc("books.xml");

x=xmlDoc.documentElement.childNodes;
document.write("Number of child nodes: " + x.length);

Try it yourself »

Example explained:

  1. Load "books.xml" into xmlDoc using loadXMLDoc()
  2. Get the child nodes of the root element
  3. Output the number of child nodes. The result is different depending on which browser you use. IE will alert 4 child nodes, while other browsers will alert 9

« Previous Next Chapter »


Altova® XMLSpy® - The industry's leading XML editor!

Altova XMLSpy

Whether you're new to XML or already an advanced user, the user-friendly views and powerful entry helpers, wizards, and debuggers in XMLSpy are designed to meet your XML and Web development needs from start to finish. New features in Version 2010!

  • XML editor
  • Graphical XML Schema / DTD editors
  • XSLT 1.0/2.0 editor, debugger, profiler
  • XQuery editor, debugger, profiler
  • XBRL validator, taxonomy editor, taxonomy wizard
  • Support for Office Open XML (OOXML)
  • Graphical WSDL 1.1/2.0 editor & SOAP debugger
  • JSON editing & conversion
  • Java, C#, C++ code generation
  • 32-bit and 64-bit versions
  • And much more!

Download a free trial today!

  Altova XMLSpy


WEB HOSTING
Best Web Hosting
PHP MySQL Hosting
Top 10 Web Hosting
UK Reseller Hosting
Web Hosting
FREE Web Hosting
Top Web Hosting
Cheap UK Web Hosting
WEB BUILDING
Download XML Editor
FREE Flash Website
FREE Web Templates
SEO Company
EDUCATION
US Web Design Schools
HTML Certification
JavaScript Certification
XML Certification
PHP Certification
ASP Certification
STATISTICS
Browser Statistics
Browser OS
Browser Display
FLIGHT TICKETS
Find the cheapest flight
to any destination now!
SHARE THIS PAGE