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Consuming XML data from Wikipedia API with Javascript

I am struggling with something that I thought would be simple:

I can pull xml data from wikipedia like so (using "Paris Hilton" as an example):

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=opensearch&search=paris%20hilton&format=xml&limit=1

However, I can't seem to consume this xml via standard AJAX functions (please see attached).

The attached HTML has javascript that should simply show an alert modal with the responseText. This works when I use local xml files, but not for the wikipedia data.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Matt
XMLJavascript.txt

HainKurt

it is working fine for me
i run the file you attached and I got alert with xml inside...

mattcashatt

ASKER

HainKurt, can you please tell me what browser you are using? I only get a blank alert and I am using the same file.

Thanks,

Matt

leakim971

Hello mattcashatt,

Me too on Chrome, blank alert.
Have a look to this article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Yurik/Query_API/User_Manual#JavaScript

Regards.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

hielo

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mattcashatt

ASKER

Thanks to hielo. The solution makes sense, however it is still not implementing correctly for me. I took Option B (the fetchFile Method), but the responseText comes back as this the code attached.

All I want to do is have access to XML generated by wikipedia based on a name like, "Albert Einstein".

I can "see" the XML by going to a link such as:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=opensearch&search=albert%20einstein&format=xml&limit=1

But I can't seem to access it programmatically with javascript. I would REALLY appreciate a working example, like some code that would pass the name (Albert Einstein) and then alert the Wikipedia Summary, all via AJAX.

This seems like it shouldn't be so hard. Am I missing something obvious? Thanks!

<?php
//fetchFile.php
echo file_get_contents('http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=opensearch&format=xml&limit=1&search=' . urlencode($_GET['search']) );
?>

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