XML Data Fetching

Overview

XML data fetching allows you to work with XML-based APIs and documents in your application. This guide covers the essential techniques for fetching and parsing XML data.

Basic XML Fetching

1. 1

   Fetch XML Data

   Use the fetch API to retrieve XML data:

   async function fetchXMLData() {
     const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/data.xml');
     const xmlText = await response.text();
     return new DOMParser().parseFromString(xmlText, 'text/xml');
   }

2. 2

   Parse XML

   Extract data from the XML document:

   function parseXMLData(xmlDoc) {
     const items = xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName('item');
     return Array.from(items).map((item) => ({
       title: item.getAttribute('title'),
       value: item.textContent,
     }));
   }

Working with XML

XML integrations can be straightforward if you keep parsing and validation explicit. Use the patterns below as a starting point.

function xmlToJson(xml) {
  const data = {}
  for (const child of xml.children) {
    data[child.tagName] = child.textContent
  }
  return data
}

Error Handling

XML is more likely to fail on malformed input, so make error paths visible and easy to debug.

try {
  const xmlData = await fetchXMLData();
  const parsedData = parseXMLData(xmlData);
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Error processing XML:', error);
}

Best Practices

These practices keep XML code maintainable and reduce surprises in production.

• Use appropriate XML parsing libraries for complex XML structures
• Implement proper error handling for XML parsing
• Cache parsed XML data when appropriate
• Validate XML data against schemas when necessary

Next Steps

Move to JSON or GraphQL whenever possible, but keep XML patterns available when you need to integrate with legacy systems.

JSON Data Fetching

Learn how to work with JSON data in your application.

JSON Guide

GraphQL

Explore GraphQL data fetching capabilities.

GraphQL Guide