Parse XML in Server Side Javascript

Question

Is there a way to parse XML in SSJS. I have an RSS Feed that comes as XML in the response, is there a way I can parse the field and store them in a Data Extension, using SSJS.

I have tried standard Java Script functions but they do not work in SSJS.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

There are no SSJS functions to parse XML, but we have achieved this with SSJS by using regular expressions to parse the XML, which works really well. Here's a snippet to set you in the right direction:

function trim(x) {
  return x.replace(/^[\s\uFEFF\xA0]+|[\s\uFEFF\xA0]+$/g, '');
};

function dataFromAttr(data, attr, notNull){
  if (data){
    var reg = new RegExp("<"+attr+">", "g");
    var result = data.match(reg);
    if(result.length == 0){
      var str = '';
      return trim(str);
    }
    if(result.length == 1){
      var str = data.split("<"+attr+">")[1];
      str = str.split("</"+attr+">")[0];
      return trim(str);
    }
    if(result.length > 1){
      var str = data.split("</"+attr+"> <"+attr+">");
      return str;
    }
    var nullElementValue = new RegExp("<"+attr+" />");
    if(data.match(nullElementValue).length) return "";
    if(notNull) return "";
  }
  else{
    return null;
  }
};

    var phHome = dataFromAttr(client, "home_phone");
    var phMobile = dataFromAttr(client, "mobile_phone");

In this instance, this script retrieving the home_phone and mobile_phone values from a client element in my XML:

<client>
    <home_phone>0712345678</home_phone>
    <mobile_phone>0402123456</mobile_phone>
    <fax_number />
</client>