XMLHttpRequest.response

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The XMLHttpRequest.response property returns the response's body. It can be of the type ArrayBuffer, Blob, Document, JavaScript object, or a DOMString, depending of the value of XMLHttpRequest.responseType property. Value of response is null if the request is not complete or was not successful. However, if the value of responseType was set to "text" or the empty string, response can contain the partial text response while the request is still in the loading state.

Value of `responseType`	Data type of `response` property
`""`	`DOMString` (this is the default value)
`"arraybuffer"`	`ArrayBuffer`
`"blob"`	`Blob`
`"document"`	`Document`
`"json"`	JavaScript object, parsed from a JSON string returned by the server
`"text"`	`DOMString`
`"moz-blob"`	Used by Firefox to allow retrieving partial `Blob` data from progress events. This lets your progress event handler start processing data while it's still being received.
`"moz-chunked-text"`	Similar to `"text"`, but is streaming. This means that the value in `response` is only available during dispatch of the `"progress"` event and only contains the data received since the last `"progress"` event. When `response` is accessed during a `"progress"` event it contains a string with the data. Otherwise it returns `null`. This mode currently only works in Firefox.
`"moz-chunked-arraybuffer"`	Similar to `"arraybuffer"`, but is streaming. This means that the value in `response` is only available during dispatch of the `"progress"` event and only contains the data received since the last `"progress"` event. When `response` is accessed during a `"progress"` event it contains a string with the data. Otherwise it returns `null`. This mode currently only works in Firefox.
"ms-stream"	Indicates that the response is part of a streaming download. It is supported only for download requests. This mode is available only in Internet Explorer.

Note: Starting with Gecko 11.0 (Firefox 11.0 / Thunderbird 11.0 / SeaMonkey 2.8), as well as WebKit build 528, these browsers no longer let you use the responseType attribute when performing synchronous requests. Attempting to do so throws an NS_ERROR_DOM_INVALID_ACCESS_ERR exception. This change has been proposed to the W3C for standardization.

Example

var url = 'somePage.html'; //A local page
function load(url, callback) {
  var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
  xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {
    if (xhr.readyState === 4) {
      console.log(xhr.response); //Outputs a DOMString by default
    }
  }
  xhr.open('GET', url, true);
  xhr.send('');
}

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
XMLHttpRequest	Living Standard	WHATWG living standard

Feature	Chrome	Edge	Firefox (Gecko)	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari (WebKit)
Basic support	?	(Yes)	?	?	?	?

Feature	Android	Chrome for Android	Edge	Firefox Mobile (Gecko)	IE Mobile	Opera Mobile	Safari Mobile
Basic support	?	?	(Yes)	?	?	?	?

Example

Specifications

Browser compatibility

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