XMLHttpRequest, Firefox and IE inconsistent

[Rich Hephner]

I'm a rookie to XMLHttpRequest and I'm having a hard time creating an
XML object that I can parse using both IE and FireFox. Works great in
Firefox, but IE returns "0" for "alert(topics.length)".
What am I doing wrong? Does IE not recognize responseXML? Thanks.
Here's my code:

function initialize(){
var xmlhttp=false;
try {
xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
} catch (e) {
try {
xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
} catch (E) {
xmlhttp = false;
}
}
if (!xmlhttp && typeof XMLHttpRequest!='undefined') {
xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
}
xmlhttp.open("GET", "test.xml",true);
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function() {
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4) {
alert(xmlhttp);
var topics = xmlhttp.responseXML.getElementsByTagName("topic");
alert(topics.length);
for(i=0;i<topics.length;i++){
name += topics[i].getAttribute("name") + "\n";
}
alert(name);
}
}
xmlhttp.send(null)
}

if(document.getElementById && document.createTextNode){
window.onload = initialize;
}

[Baconbutty]

I don't know if this helps, but you may need to call it off the
documentElement

i.e. responseXML.documentElement.getElementsByTagName

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...agnameelem.asp

[phil_gg04]

> I'm a rookie to XMLHttpRequest and I'm having a hard time creating an

XML object that I can parse using both IE and FireFox

I'm going to sound like a record stuck in a groove because I said
exactly this to the last person with an XmlHttpRequest problem: use the
Sarissa library (google for it). It does an excellent job of hiding
the browser differences.

--Phil.

[Baconbutty]

Sorry, I have got that wrong.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...tagnamedoc.asp

responseXML is definitely recognised, so it may be some parsing error
on the document.

[Rich Hephner]

Thanks for the replies. I had considered Sarissa, but I'm a stubborn
programmer who doesn't beleive in using code from someone else when you
can write it yourself. : )

As simple a task as this SHOULD be, it isn't turning out that way, so i
may go the Sarissa route after all. Thanks again.