Web/API/XMLHTTPRequest/responseXML

The XMLHttpRequest.responseXML read-only property returns a Document containing the HTML or XML retrieved by the request; or null if the request was unsuccessful, has not yet been sent, or if the data can't be parsed as XML or HTML.

Note: The name responseXML is an artifact of this property's history; it works for both HTML and XML.

Usually, the response is parsed as "text/xml". If the responseType is set to "document" and the request was made asynchronously, instead the response is parsed as "text/html". responseXML is null for any other types of data, as well as for data: URLs.

If the server doesn't specify the Content-Type as "text/xml" or "application/xml", you can use XMLHttpRequest.overrideMimeType() to parse it as XML anyway.

This property isn't available to workers.

Syntax

var data = XMLHttpRequest.responseXML;

Value

A Document from parsing the XML or HTML received using XMLHttpRequest, or null if no data was received or if the data is not XML/HTML.

Exceptions

InvalidStateError: The responseType isn't either "document" or an empty string.

Example

var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest;
xhr.open('GET', '/server');

// If specified, responseType must be empty string or "document"
xhr.responseType = 'document';

// Force the response to be parsed as XML
xhr.overrideMimeType('text/xml');

xhr.onload = function () {
  if (xhr.readyState === xhr.DONE && xhr.status === 200) {
    console.log(xhr.response, xhr.responseXML);
  }
};

xhr.send();

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
XMLHttpRequestThe definition of 'responseXML' in that specification.	Living Standard	WHATWG living standard

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`responseXML`	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support Yes Notes' Full support Yes Notes' Notes' Prior to Firefox 51, an error parsing the received data added a `<parsererror>` node to the top of the `Document` and then returned the `Document` in whatever state it happens to be in. This was inconsistent with the specification. Starting with Firefox 51, this scenario now correctly returns `null` as per the spec.	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support Yes Notes' Full support Yes Notes' Notes' Prior to Firefox 51, an error parsing the received data added a `<parsererror>` node to the top of the `Document` and then returned the `Document` in whatever state it happens to be in. This was inconsistent with the specification. Starting with Firefox 51, this scenario now correctly returns `null` as per the spec.	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes

Legend

Full support: Full support
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.