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XMLHttpRequest: responseXML property

The XMLHttpRequest.responseXML read-only property returns a Document containing the HTML or XML retrieved by the request; or null if the request was unsuccessful, has not yet been sent, or if the data can't be parsed as XML or HTML.

Note: The name responseXML is an artifact of this property's history; it works for both HTML and XML.

Usually, the response is parsed as "text/xml". If the responseType is set to "document" and the request was made asynchronously, instead the response is parsed as "text/html". responseXML is null for any other types of data, as well as for data: URLs.

If the server doesn't specify the Content-Type as "text/xml" or "application/xml", you can use XMLHttpRequest.overrideMimeType() to parse it as XML anyway.

This property isn't available to workers.

Value

A Document from parsing the XML or HTML received using XMLHttpRequest, or null if no data was received or if the data is not XML/HTML.

Exceptions

InvalidStateError DOMException: Thrown if the responseType isn't either document or an empty string.

Examples

const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open("GET", "/server");

// If specified, responseType must be empty string or "document"
xhr.responseType = "document";

// Force the response to be parsed as XML
xhr.overrideMimeType("text/xml");

xhr.onload = () => {
  if (xhr.readyState === xhr.DONE && xhr.status === 200) {
    console.log(xhr.response, xhr.responseXML);
  }
};

xhr.send();

Specifications

Specification
XMLHttpRequest Standard # the-responsexml-attribute

Browser compatibility

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	WebView Android	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet
`responseXML`	1	12	1 Before Firefox 51, an error parsing the received data added a `<parsererror>` node to the top of the `Document` and then returned the `Document` in whatever state it happens to be in. This was inconsistent with the specification. Starting with Firefox 51, this scenario now correctly returns `null` as per the spec.	7	≤12.1	3	≤37	18	4 Before Firefox 51, an error parsing the received data added a `<parsererror>` node to the top of the `Document` and then returned the `Document` in whatever state it happens to be in. This was inconsistent with the specification. Starting with Firefox 51, this scenario now correctly returns `null` as per the spec.	≤12.1	1	1.0

Value

Exceptions

Examples

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also