How to output HTML form data to a XML file using Javascript?

Question

I'm currently trying to figure out how to output my HTML form data to an XML file. This is an idea I've been playing around with for the past couple of days in order to create a autounattended.xml file to be used with Windows 7 installations.

Currently my HTML is as follows:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Windows 7 Answer File Generator</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <form>
            <h1>Windows 7 Answer File Generator</h1>
            <h2>General Settings</h2>
            <table>
                <tr>
                    <td width="200px">Skip product key:</td>
                    <td>
                        <select name="SkipProductKey">
                            <option value="Yes" selected="selected">Yes</option>
                            <option value="No">No</option>
                        </select>
                    </td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td width="200px">Skip automatic activation:</td>
                    <td>
                        <select name="SkipAutoActivation">
                            <option value="Yes" selected="selected">Yes</option>
                            <option value="No">No</option>
                        </select>
                    </td>
                </tr>
            </table>
        </body>
    </html>

This is just a snippet of what I've been working on. So, I was wondering if its possible to use javascript to create an XML file based on the select values and ask the user where to save the xml file. Any information regarding this would be a big help.

Answer 1

Demo here

$(function () {
  $('#DownloadButton').click(update);
});

var template = [
  '<?xml version="1.0"?>',
  '<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">',
  '...',
  '<SkipProductKey><?SkipProductKey?></SkipProductKey>',
  '...',
  '<SkipAutoActivation><?SkipAutoActivation?></SkipAutoActivation>',
  '...',
  '</unattend>'
].join('\r\n');

function update() {
  var variables = {
    'SkipProductKey': $('#SkipProductKey').val(),
    'SkipAutoActivation': $('#SkipAutoActivation').val()
  };

  var newXml = template.replace(/<\?(\w+)\?>/g,
    function(match, name) {
      return variables[name];
    });


  $('#ResultXml').val(newXml);
  $('#DownloadLink')
    .attr('href', 'data:text/xml;base64,' + btoa(newXml))
    .attr('download', 'autounattended.xml');
  $('#generated').show();
}

if (!window.btoa) {
  // Source: http://www.koders.com/javascript/fid78168FE1380F7420FB7B7CD8BAEAE58929523C17.aspx
  btoa = function (input) {
    var chars = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=';

    var result = '';
    var chr1, chr2, chr3;
    var enc1, enc2, enc3, enc4;
    var i = 0;

    do {
      chr1 = input.charCodeAt(i++);
      chr2 = input.charCodeAt(i++);
      chr3 = input.charCodeAt(i++);

      enc1 = chr1 >> 2;
      enc2 = ((chr1 & 3) << 4) | (chr2 >> 4);
      enc3 = ((chr2 & 15) << 2) | (chr3 >> 6);
      enc4 = chr3 & 63;

      if (isNaN(chr2)) {
        enc3 = enc4 = 64;
      } else if (isNaN(chr3)) {
        enc4 = 64;
      }

      result += chars.charAt(enc1) + chars.charAt(enc2) + chars.charAt(enc3) + chars.charAt(enc4);
    } while (i < input.length);

    return result;
  };
}

Edit:

Added the download-button as requested from OP.
Added the download -attribute to the link to show the Save As -dialog when clicked. (Thanks Saurabh)
Demo updated.

How to output HTML form data to a XML file using Javascript?

Question

1 answers

solution1
6 ACCPTED 2012-07-08 14:13:21

How to output HTML form data to a XML file using Javascript?

Question

1 answers

solution1 6 ACCPTED 2012-07-08 14:13:21

solution1
6 ACCPTED 2012-07-08 14:13:21