Article
Using the XML Data Source Object
XML Ticker Using XML-DSO
So far we’ve considered simple examples. Now, we’ll look at a more dynamic example: "XML Ticker using XML-DSO". In this example, the ticker reads its messages and URLs from an external example file, and ticks the messages with a specified delay.
<!-- ticker.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<ticker>
</item>
<item>
<message>JavaScripts by Premshree Pillai</message>
<URL>http://premshree.resource-locator.com/
javascripts.htm</URL>
</item>
<item>
<message>The Scripting Newsletter</message>
<URL>http://premshree.resource-locator.com/cgi-bin/
newsletter.pl</URL>
</item>
</ticker>
<!-- ticker.css -->
.tickerStyle {
font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica; font-size:10pt;
color:#666666;
border:#666666 solid 1px; width:400px; height:20px;
text-decoration:none; text-align:center;
background:#FFFFFF
}
.tickerStyle:hover {
font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica; font-size:10pt;
color:#FF6600;
border:#666666 solid 1px; width:400px; height:20px;
text-decoration:none; text-align:center;
background:#FFFFFF
}
<!-- ticker.htm -->
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>XML Ticker using XML DSO</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="ticker.css">
<!-- begin script -->
<script language="JavaScript">
//////////////////////////////////////////////////
// XML Ticker using XML DSO //
//////////////////////////////////////////////////
var xmlDso, tickerSet;
function initTicker(xmlFile, objName, counter, maxMsgs, timeOut) {
/* Check for IE4+ */
if(document.all&&navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Opera")==-1) {
eval('xmlDso='+objName+'.XMLDocument');
xmlDso.load(xmlFile);
setTimeout("xmlDsoTicker('"+objName+"','"+counter+"',
'"+maxMsgs+"',
'"+timeOut+"')", timeOut);
}
else {
alert('This Ticker works with IE4+ only!');
return false;
}
}
function xmlDsoTicker(objName, counter, maxMsgs, timeOut) {
/* Get all the data as a record set */
eval('tickerSet=' + objName + '.recordset');
if(!tickerSet.EOF && counter<maxMsgs-1) {
tickerSet.MoveNext();
counter++;
}
else {
counter=0;
tickerSet.MoveFirst();
}
setTimeout("xmlDsoTicker('"+objName+"','"+counter+"',
'"+maxMsgs+"',
'"+timeOut+"')", timeOut);
}
</script>
<!-- end script -->
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<!-- begin ticker placement -->
<center>
<object id="ticker" CLASSID="clsid:550dda30-0541-11d2-9ca9-
0060b0ec3d39" width="0"
height="0"></object>
<a href="" datasrc="#ticker" datafld="URL"
class="tickerStyle">
<span datasrc="#ticker" datafld="message"></span>
</a>
<script language="JavaScript">
var tickerMaxMsgs=2; // Maximum Messages in the XML Data file
var tickerCount=tickerMaxMsgs;
new initTicker("ticker.xml","ticker",tickerCount,tickerMaxMsgs,2000);
</script>
</center>
<!-- end ticker placement -->
</body>
</html>
Here's how the output appears:
Before you go, don't forget to download all the examples we covered in this article!