Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'getElementsByTagName' of null

Hi i am learning xml , in a very simple code i got an error saying
"Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'getElementsByTagName' of null"
i am getting this in all browsers ,i have tried to look for solution on google but could not find ,Plz help

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><title>http request</title>
<head>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="twitterfinalcut/twittericon.jpg" />

</head>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript">
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
  {// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
 var  xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
else
  {// code for IE6, IE5
  xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }
xmlhttp.open("GET","note.xml",false);
xmlhttp.send();
xmlDoc=xmlhttp.responseXML; 
  var x=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("CD");
  document.write (x[0].getElementsByTagName("ARTIST")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue);
  document.write (x[0].getElementsByTagName("TITLE")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue);
 </script>

</body>
</html>

Here is the simple xml file "note.xml" code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>


<CATALOG>
   <CD>
        <ARTIST>Kenny Rogers</ARTIST>
		<TITLE>For the good times</TITLE>

		

		<COUNTRY>UK</COUNTRY>

		<COMPANY>Mucik Master</COMPANY>

		<PRICE>8.70</PRICE>

		<YEAR>1995</YEAR>
  </CD>>
</CATALOG>

learner guy

Light Poster

26 posts since Aug 2011

Reputation Points: 10

Solved Threads: 0

4 Months Ago

If the XML file you are retrieving has invalid markup, then on line 20 xmlDoc will be set to null. If that is the case, then xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName() will give you the error you are describing. So, you need to make sure that the responseXML is not null.

On your XML file, line 18 has a typo, making your xml markup invalid.

hielo

Veteran Poster

1,124 posts since Dec 2007

Reputation Points: 116

Solved Threads: 244

4 Months Ago

If the XML file you are retrieving has invalid markup, then on line 20 xmlDoc will be set to null. If that is the case, then xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName() will give you the error you are describing. So, you need to make sure that the responseXML is not null.

On your XML file, line 18 has a typo, making your xml markup invalid.

thanks for the reply , i have removed that typo of> but it is still not working :(

learner guy

Light Poster

26 posts since Aug 2011

Reputation Points: 10

Solved Threads: 0

4 Months Ago

Try
var x=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("CD"); alert(x)

If your alert doesn't contain what you asked for, it means that your xhtml request failed. So you should examine your xmlhttp request code in more detail and see if its complete.

Troy III

Practically a Master Poster

609 posts since Jun 2008

Reputation Points: 120

Solved Threads: 80

This article has been dead for over three months

You