Revision 742699 of DOMParser

<p>{{APIRef("DOMParser")}}{{SeeCompatTable}}</p>

<p><code>DOMParser</code> can parse XML or HTML source stored in a string into a DOM <a href="/en-US/docs/DOM/document" title="document">Document</a>. <code>DOMParser</code> is specified in <a href="https://html5.org/specs/dom-parsing.html" title="https://html5.org/specs/dom-parsing.html">DOM Parsing and Serialization</a>.</p>

<p>Note that <a href="/en-US/docs/DOM/XMLHttpRequest" title="DOM/XMLHttpRequest">XMLHttpRequest</a> supports parsing XML and HTML from URL-addressable resources.</p>

<h2 id="Creating_a_DOMParser">Creating a DOMParser</h2>

<p>To create a <code>DOMParser</code> object simply use <code>new DOMParser()</code>.</p>

<p>For more information about creating a <code>DOMParser</code> in Firefox extensions, please see the documentation for <a href="/en-US/docs/nsIDOMParser" title="nsIDOMParser"><code>nsIDOMParser</code></a>.</p>

<h2 id="Parsing_XML">Parsing XML</h2>

<p>Once you have created a parser object, you can parse XML from a string using the <code>parseFromString</code> method:</p>

<pre class="brush: js">
var parser = new DOMParser();
var doc = parser.parseFromString(stringContainingXMLSource, "application/xml");
</pre>

<h3 id="Error_handling" name="Error_handling">Error handling</h3>

<p>Note that if the parsing process failed, <code>DOMParser</code> currently does not throw an exception, but instead returns an error document (see {{Bug(45566)}}):</p>

<pre class="brush:xml">
&lt;parsererror xmlns="https://www.mozilla.org/newlayout/xml/parsererror.xml"&gt;
(error description)
&lt;sourcetext&gt;(a snippet of the source XML)&lt;/sourcetext&gt;
&lt;/parsererror&gt;
</pre>

<p>The parsing errors are also reported to the <a href="/en-US/docs/Error_Console" title="Error Console">Error Console</a>, with the document URI (see below) as the source of the error.</p>

<h2 id="Parsing_an_SVG_or_HTML_document">Parsing an SVG or HTML document</h2>

<p>The <code>DOMParser</code> can also be used to parse a SVG document {{geckoRelease("10.0")}} or a HTML document {{geckoRelease("12.0")}}. There are three different results possible, selected by the MIME type given. If the MIME type is <code>text/xml</code>, the resulting object will be an <code>XMLDocument</code>, if the MIME type is <code>image/svg+xml</code>, it will be an <code>SVGDocument</code> and if the MIME type is <code>text/html</code>, it will be an <code>HTMLDocument</code>.</p>

<pre class="brush: js">
var parser = new DOMParser();
var doc = parser.parseFromString(stringContainingXMLSource, "application/xml");
// returns a Document, but not a SVGDocument nor a HTMLDocument

parser = new DOMParser();
doc = parser.parseFromString(stringContainingXMLSource, "image/svg+xml");
// returns a SVGDocument, which also is a Document.

parser = new DOMParser();
doc = parser.parseFromString(stringContainingHTMLSource, "text/html");
// returns a HTMLDocument, which also is a Document.
</pre>

<h3 id="DOMParser_HTML_extension_for_other_browsers">DOMParser HTML extension for other browsers</h3>

<pre class="brush: js">
/* inspired by https://gist.github.com/1129031 */
/*global document, DOMParser*/

(function(DOMParser) {
	"use strict";

	var
	  proto = DOMParser.prototype
	, nativeParse = <span style="font-size: 1rem; word-spacing: normal;">proto</span><span style="font-size: 1rem; word-spacing: normal;">.parseFromString</span>
	;

	// Firefox/Opera/IE throw errors on unsupported types
	try {
		// WebKit returns null on unsupported types
		if ((new DOMParser()).parseFromString("", "text/html")) {
			// text/html parsing is natively supported
			return;
		}
	} catch (ex) {}

	<span style="font-size: 1rem; word-spacing: normal;">proto</span><span style="font-size: 1rem; word-spacing: normal;">.parseFromString = function(markup, type) {</span>
		if (/^\s*text\/html\s*(?:;|$)/i.test(type)) {
			var
			  doc = document.implementation.createHTMLDocument("")
			;
	      		if (markup.toLowerCase().indexOf('&lt;!doctype') &gt; -1) {
        			doc.documentElement.innerHTML = markup;
      			}
      			else {
        			doc.body.innerHTML = markup;
      			}
			return doc;
		} else {
			return <span style="font-size: 1rem; word-spacing: normal;">nativeParse</span><span style="font-size: 1rem; word-spacing: normal;">.apply(this, arguments);</span>
		}
	};
}(DOMParser));
</pre>

<h3 id="DOMParser_from_Chrome.2FJSM.2FXPCOM.2FPrivileged_Scope">DOMParser from Chrome/JSM/XPCOM/Privileged Scope</h3>

<p>See article here: <a href="/en-US/docs/nsIDOMParser">nsIDOMParser</a></p>

<h2 id="Browser_compatibility" name="Browser_compatibility">Browser compatibility</h2>

<div>{{CompatibilityTable}}</div>

<div id="compat-desktop">
<table class="compat-table">
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <th>Feature</th>
   <th>Chrome</th>
   <th>Firefox (Gecko)</th>
   <th>Internet Explorer</th>
   <th>Opera</th>
   <th>Safari (WebKit)</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>XML support</td>
   <td>{{CompatChrome(1)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatGeckoDesktop(1)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatIE(9)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatOpera(8)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatSafari(3.2)}}</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>SVG support</td>
   <td>{{CompatChrome(4)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatGeckoDesktop(10.0)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatIE(10)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatOpera(15)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatSafari(3.2)}}</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>HTML support</td>
   <td>{{CompatChrome(30)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatGeckoDesktop(12.0)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatIE(10)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatOpera(17)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatSafari(7.1)}}</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>
</div>

<div id="compat-mobile">
<table class="compat-table">
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <th>Feature</th>
   <th>Android</th>
   <th>Firefox Mobile (Gecko)</th>
   <th>IE Mobile</th>
   <th>Opera Mobile</th>
   <th>Safari Mobile</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>XML support</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatVersionUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatUnknown}}</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>SVG support</td>
   <td>{{CompatUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatGeckoMobile(10.0)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatUnknown}}</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>HTML support</td>
   <td>{{CompatUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatGeckoMobile(12.0)}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatUnknown}}</td>
   <td>{{CompatUnknown}}</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>
</div>

<h2 id="See_also" name="See_also">See also</h2>

<ul>
 <li><a href="/en-US/docs/Parsing_and_serializing_XML" title="Parsing_and_serializing_XML">Parsing and serializing XML</a></li>
 <li><a href="/en-US/docs/DOM/XMLHttpRequest" title="DOM/XMLHttpRequest">XMLHttpRequest</a></li>
 <li><a href="/en-US/docs/XMLSerializer" title="XMLSerializer">XMLSerializer</a></li>
 <li><a href="/en-US/Add-ons/Code_snippets/HTML_to_DOM">Parsing HTML to DOM</a></li>
</ul>