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Sams Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days

Sep 16, 2005

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Searching XML Data by Using a DSO and JavaScript

As you've already seen, you don't have to bind the data from a DSO to HTML controls at all; you can work with that data from a scripting language such as JavaScript. That makes it easy to handle data in various ways, such as searching for a particular data item behind-the-scenes and displaying the results of the search in a Web page.

For example, say that a user wants to search for all the data about a particular state rather than having to navigate through all the states to find the one she wants. We can let her simply enter the name of the state in a text field, search for the matching state, and display the data if a match occurs. In this example, you'll use the XML DSO to point out another feature of that DSO: If you give it a size (not just zero width and height), it will display status and error messages. Here's how that might look:

<APPLET CODE="com.ms.xml.dso.XMLDSO.class"
    ID="states"
    WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="20"
    MAYSCRIPT="true">
    <PARAM NAME="URL" VALUE="ch19_03.xml">
</APPLET>

To make your search case-insensitive, you'll read the state name the user has entered, convert it to lowercase, and store it in the JavaScript variable findMe:

function search()
{
    var findMe = form1.text1.value.toLowerCase()
        .
        .
        .

Then you can loop over the states in code (converting their names to lowercase for the comparison), and check whether you find the matching state:

function search()
{
    var findMe = form1.text1.value.toLowerCase()

    while (!states.recordset.EOF) {

           .

           .

           .

           }

           states.recordset.moveNext()

       }
}

If you find a match, display the matching state's data:

function search()
{
    var findMe = form1.text1.value.toLowerCase()

    while (!states.recordset.EOF) {
        var stateName = new String(states.recordset("name"))
        stateName = stateName.toLowerCase()
        if (stateName.indexOf(findMe) >= 0) {
            displayDIV.innerHTML +=

               states.recordset("name") +

               "'s population is " +

               states.recordset("population") +

               ", its bird is the " +

               states.recordset("bird") +

               ", and its flower is the " +

               states.recordset("flower") +

               ".<BR><BR>"
        }
        states.recordset.moveNext()
    }
}

All that's left to do is display the text field for the user to enter the state's name and a button to click to start the search. That looks like this:

<DIV ID="displayDIV"></DIV>
<FORM ID="form1">
    State to find: <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="text1">
    <BR>
    <BR>
    <INPUT TYPE="BUTTON" VALUE="Find state"
        ONCLICK="search()">
</FORM>

Figure 19.7 shows how this works; in this figure, you have gotten the goods on New York State. Also note in this figure that the XML DSO is displaying a status message indicating that it successfully loaded the XML document ch19_03.xml. If you give it space in your Web pages, this DSO will let you know what's going on, and if a parsing error occurs, it will give you all the details.

Figure 19.7 Searching an XML database.

Listing 19.9 shows the full code for this example.

Example 19.9. Searching XML Data (`ch19_09.html`)

<HTML>
    <HEAD>
        <TITLE>
            Searching an XML Database
        </TITLE>

        <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
            function search()
            {
                var findMe = form1.text1.value.toLowerCase()

                while (!states.recordset.EOF) {
                    var stateName = new String(states.recordset("name"))
                    stateName = stateName.toLowerCase()
                    if (stateName.indexOf(findMe) >= 0) {
                        displayDIV.innerHTML +=
                        states.recordset("name") +
                        "'s population is " +
                        states.recordset("population") +
                        ", its bird is the " +
                        states.recordset("bird") +
                        ", and its flower is the " +
                        states.recordset("flower") +
                        ".<BR><BR>"
                    }
                    states.recordset.moveNext()
                }
            }
        </SCRIPT>
    </HEAD>

    <BODY>
        <H1>
            Searching an XML Database
        </H1>

        <APPLET CODE="com.ms.xml.dso.XMLDSO.class"
            ID="states"
            WIDTH="400" HEIGHT="20"
            MAYSCRIPT="true">
            <PARAM NAME="URL" VALUE="ch19_03.xml">
        </APPLET>

        <BR>
        <DIV ID="displayDIV"></DIV>
        <FORM ID="form1">
            State to find: <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="text1">
            <BR>
            <BR>
            <INPUT TYPE="BUTTON" VALUE="Find state"
                ONCLICK="search()">
        </FORM>
    </BODY>
</HTML>

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Searching XML Data by Using a DSO and JavaScript

Example 19.9. Searching XML Data (ch19_09.html)

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Example 19.9. Searching XML Data (`ch19_09.html`)