Making Use of the XML Data Source Object

he XML Data Source Object (DSO) is a Microsoft ActiveX control that's been built into Microsoft Internet Explorer since version 4. This object allows you to extract content from an external XML file or XML data embedded in the HTML file into a HTML page.

You can use the XML-DSO in a Web page to extract content from an external XML file, extract XML data from XML data embedded in the Web page, and manipulate that data using JavaScript. However, it is not advisable to use this object for the Internet since XML-DSO only works on MSIE 4+ browsers, which can raise compatibility issues. It is much more advisable to use XML-DSO for intranets.

Getting Started
To initialize the XML-DSO object, use the <OBJECT> tag. The CLASSID for the XML-DSO is:

CLSID:550dda30-0541-11d2-9ca9-0060b0ec3d39

This ID uniquely identifies the XML-DSO. Initialize this control in a Web page using this code:

<OBJECT ID="SomeID" CLASSID="CLSID:550dda30-0541-11d2-9ca9-0060b0ec3d39"></OBJECT>

Though most OBJECTs have a number of parameters associated with them, the XML-DSO does not require any.

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