How do I use AJAX to create a list of a server-side directory?

Question

Given how most questions I've seen regarding this concept aren't clear with their end goal, I want to start off with a bit of Python code and use that as the base of this question.

from glob import glob

print(glob('*'))

The preceding code prints off a list of all files and/or folders it detects in a directory ( * marking the current directory that the script is running in), with the help of the glob module . So if I were to run the script within a directory with a folder and two images, the resulting output would be the following list:

['folder1','image1.png','image2.png','script.py']

What I'm looking to do is to recreate this functionality within Javascript for content local to a webserver. (To make life easy, let's say this is all running off localhost ) From what I've managed to find, AJAX is the best modern method of Javascript file handling there is. With it, I've been able to call an httpsRequest to the folder I want, but the only response I've managed to get is an HTML dump of what I presume to be the server's file explorer. Trying to use modifiers such as responseText yield <empty sting> responses in the console. For context, this is the code I've currently been working with:

function() {
    httpRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();

    if (!httpRequest) {
        alert("Giving up :( Cannot create an XMLHTTP instance");
        return false;
    }
    httpRequest.onreadystatechange = console.log(httpRequest);
    httpRequest.open('GET', '/testing/');
    httpRequest.send();
}

Answer 1

Gotta love the XY problem .

Why this doesn't work

AJAX's functionality is not designed for dynamic file handling like Python's glob . It's primarily designed to exchange information one file at a time, with the ability to alter that file in the XMLHttpRequest . This isn't a downside, as it's useful for handing config files in JSON or communicating with a PHP database. It's also worth bringing up something mentioned in Tangentially Perpendicular's comment:

You'll only get a directory listing if the web server is set up to provide one, and not always then. [That said] you probably don't want to do that for security reasons.

"Then how do I create a dynamic list of articles to show up in my HTML?"

And there's our X.

What you really want is a Static Site Generator . With it, you'll be able to create and compile a site that handles creating that article list for you.

For those looking for further reading, keep in mind that SSG's are often used in reference to the Jamstack.