hi,

Im writing a sidebar gadget which needs to display the data from the tables in a html page , im using xmlhttprequest() and displaying the request using
document.getElementById('show').innerHTML=xmlhttp. responseText;
this does diplay the page but i only need to display some of the <TD.. elements on the page, could anyone provide me with a good link or explain the process of parsing the html...? I have been searching google and reading w3schools website fot the last 3 days now, I want to keep what little hair i have left now... LOL.

I am only learning javascript so please keep it simple or well commented...
Can post source if this helps?
Thanks in advance, Phill.

Depends on HOW you can identify the required elements.

to get all TDs would be:

var XMLDoc = xmlhttp.responseText;
var m_aeTD = XMLdoc.getElementsByTagName("td");

Then run through the array of TD elements as you would with any array.

Hi chris thank you for the quick reply!

All the elements i want are capital TD's,
eg. <tr><TDclass="col1">textThatIwant</td>

the code below doesnt seem to work for me.. but am i thinking along the right track??

var XMLDoc = xmlhttp.responseText;
var m_aeTD = XMLdoc.getElementsByTagName("TD");
var retrn;
for(x=0;x<m_aeTD.length;x++)
{
retrn = retrn + m_aeTD.item(x).firstChild.nodeValue;
}

//xmlhttp.responseText
document.getElementById('show').innerHTML=retrn;

<TDclass

should be

<TD class

note the space

yes its actualy <TD class in the html document ... just a typo in my post...

Tag names in HTML are case-insensitive. So getElementsByTagName("TD") is the same as getElementsByTagName("td") no matter how it is in your document. I always use lower case.

the code below doesnt seem to work for me.. but am i thinking along the right track?

What is it doing? or not?

var retrn = "";
for(x=0;x<m_aeTD.length;x++) {
   retrn += m_aeTD[x].innerHTML;
}

Sorry I just dont see the fault...
where did i go wrong? this im sure is not rocket science but i just dont see it...

retrn = retrn + m_aeTD.item(x).firstChild.nodeValue

javascript arrays/collections are referenced using a C style syntax eg: array[index]

the array.item(index) syntax is Pascal\Delphi\VB\VBScript style

And I shortened the concatenation a little

I have been somewhat successfull lastnight ...
I was not able to use this

var m_aeTD = XMLdoc.getElementsByTagName("TD");
allways gave me an error...

Instead I have taken the html page source and saved it to my desktop as test.html
and used document.getElementsByTagName() then a for loop which im not quite sure runs right... (but it works...) to display ( document.write) the required <TD tags in a table which "should" add more rows to the table when more devices are on my lan.

im try'n to learn not get somebody to do it for me... but can any of you guys take a look at my code and give me some advice on how to use xmlhttp.resposeText in the same way i have done it in test.html....??

link -http://rapidshare.com/files/211870915/eirstat.gadget.rar.html
MD5: C48CE955E5C53147D4609A3ADA035951

var m_aeTD = XMLdoc.getElementsByTagName("TD");

What's the error you get?

you may need to use XMLDoc.document.getElementsByTagName("TD");

     var XMLDoc = xmlhttp.responseText;
     alert("test if ok here "+XMLDoc) //works, shows entire page
     var m_aeTD = XMLDoc.getElementsByTagName("TD"); //Fails here!
     alert("test2 "); // no alert....
     alert("m_aeTD = "+m_aeTD);
     alert("m_aeTD = "+m_aeTD[19]);

need the error message that you get, or a URI to the page.

using try + catch(err) the error just says "[object Error]" Is that what you meen?

script debugger stops at line 63: var m_aeTD = XMLDoc.getElementsByTagName("TD"); //Fails here!


Object doesn't support this property or method

Use response.XML in place of response.Text so the document is returned as a XML structured document rather than plain text

responseXML returns null...
Im doing a lot of reading up on the subject, will let you know if i get the answer thank you for your time,

phill.