CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptjqueryweb-servicesmobilefile-io
asdf
asdf

Reputation: 667

Javascript - Reading a text file line by line. Does it matter what browser is being used?

I have just started getting into Javascript and mobile web programming. One thing that I am uncertain of is how I can write proper code that runs on any browser without having the end user have any extra requirements on their end (what browser to use).

I am coding this in google chrome and more recently in c9.io.

I thought this would work:

 function readTextFile(file) 
 {
     var client = new XMLHttpRequest();
     client.open('GET', file);
     client.send();
     client.onreadystatechange = function() {
         alert(client.responseText);
     }
 }

But i get the error that XMLHTTpRequest is not defined. I have been trying to figure out why this is and I keep coming to different browsers not supporting this. I had figured simple file io would not be that difficult but its causing me more trouble than I had hoped.

What is the best way to input a text file? It is 1 text file that is not having anything being written to it. Just read only. The end user isn't choosing this text file it should be the only option.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2881

Answers (2)

hex494D49
hex494D49

Reputation: 9235

The order in your code is wrong, send method should be the last one; otherwise, your code is fine and it should work fine in all modern browsers. The mentioned order issue, or maybe was something else (before) causing that error. The snippet below will also split received text in an array of text lines

var xhr, i, text, lines;
if(window.XMLHttpRequest){
    // IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
    xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
}else{
    // IE5, IE6  - next line supports these dinosaurs
    xhr = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xhr.onreadystatechange = function(){
    if(xhr.readyState == 4 && xhr.status == 200){
        text = xhr.responseText;
        lines = text.split("\n"); 
        for(i = 0; i < lines.length; i++){ 
            console.log(lines[i]); 
        }
    }
}
xhr.open('GET', 'http://domain/file.txt', true);
xhr.send();

Upvotes: 1

Kash Pourdeilami
Kash Pourdeilami

Reputation: 488

XMLHTTpRequest is not supported by the older browsers. Try doing this to support the older browsers as well:

var xmlhttp;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
  {// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
  xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
else
  {// code for IE6, IE5
  xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }

Upvotes: 0

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