I enjoy using libraries that have built query support for XML. Much of the data that is generated by my organization’s internal applications is in the form of XML. 9 times out of 10 I have to parse that data for values to be used for my development. My most recent development project prompted me to use Dojo for my development.

The XML that I had to parse required querying for node with text of a certain value. The native :contains pseudo shipped with dojo didn’t work because it uses the innerHTML property which isn’t available for XML nodes. I could have rewritten that pseudo but that would potentially break other code. I decided to create my own pseudo with the logic used in jQuery’s :contains pseudo:

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dojo.query.pseudos.text = function(name, condition){
    var cz = condition.charAt(0);
    if( cz == '"' || cz == "'" ){ //remove quote
        condition = condition.slice(1, -1);
    }
    return function(elem){
        return ((elem.textContent || elem.innerText || "").indexOf(condition) >= 0);
    }
};

Using the following XML:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<catalog>
    <book id="bk101">
        <author>Grisham, John</author>
        <title>The Confession: A Novel</title>
    </book>
    <book id="bk102">
        <author>Morrison, Matthew</author>
        <title>One Day More</title>
    </book>
    <book id="bk103">
        <author>Grisham, John</author>
        <title>The Partner</title>
    </book>
    <book id="bk104">
        <author>Grisham, John</author>
        <title>Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer</title>
    </book>
    <book id="bk105">
        <author>Morrison, Matthew</author>
        <title>It Takes Two</title>
    </book>
</catalog>

I could find all books by John Grisham using the following:

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dojo.query('book', xml).filter(function(book){
    return dojo.query('author:text(Grisham, John)', book).length > 0;
});