Angularjs - using $http to obtain xml response rather than json

Question

I am trying to scrape a website using angularjs / javascript.

I know that angularjs provides an $http object with which I can make get requests. I have previously used this to obtain json, can I use the same object to obtain XML (HTML)? (I believe the response will be encoded using gzip).

Thanks!

Answer 1

Getting an xml file with $httpProvider doesn't pass response data into your callback in the form of a DOM.

Use the below example as a pattern, and convert the returned text using the DOMParser or appropriate ActiveX object in an old IE client.

exampleModule = angular.module('exampleModule', []);
exampleController = exampleModule.controller('exampleController', ['$scope', '$http', function ($scope, $http) {
    $http.get("example.xml").then(function (response) {
        var dom;
        if (typeof DOMParser != "undefined") {
            var parser = new DOMParser();
            dom = parser.parseFromString(response.data, "text/xml");
        }
        else {
            var doc = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
            doc.async = false;
            dom = doc.loadXML(response.data);
        }
        // Now response is a DOMDocument with childNodes etc.
        return dom;
    });
}]);

Answer 2

You should be able to use $http for getting response data other than JSON. The $http documentation explains that one of the default response transforms is If JSON response is detected, deserialize it using a JSON parser. However if you request something else (for example an HTML template) response.data should have the string value of that HTML. In fact Angular uses $http for pulling down HTML for use with ngInclude, etc.

The gzip (or unzipping in this case) should be handled by the browser before the response gets to $http.