So here's something I find puzzling.
I'm working on a Javascript that needs to parse XML data and I'm using jQuery's $.ajax to fetch and parse the data. It's working great everywhere except when I test with Internet Explorer 8 (it might be a problem on 7 and 9 too). On IE, I'm getting parse errors. I installed a console.log to check the HTTP headers. Here's what I get from Chrome on Windows XP and what I'm getting from IE --
Chrome:
Date: Sat, 09 Apr 2011 16:06:24 GMT
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Length: 2283
Last-Modified: Sat, 09 Apr 2011 15:59:12 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu)
ETag: "48048-8eb-4a07e6c693400"
Content-Type: application/xml
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=97
IE8:
LOG: ETag: "48048-8eb-4a07d7a3cbe40"
Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=97
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 2283
Last-Modified: Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:51:29 GMT
This is a sample of what the xml document looks like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
<tweet>
<name>name</name>
<message>message</message>
<avatar>avatar</avatar>
</tweet>
<tweet>
<name>name</name>
<message>message</message>
<avatar>avatar</avatar>
</tweet>
</root>
I checked the MIME configuring for my Apache server and it is set to send xml files as 'application/xml'. So it's strangely sending a content-type of 'application/xml' to Chrome, but IE gets content-type of 'text/html'.
So I built a simple PHP script:
<?php
header('Content-type: application/xml; charset=UTF-8');
echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>';
?>
<root>
<tweet>
<name>name</name>
<message>message</message>
<avatar>avatar</avatar>
</tweet>
<tweet>
<name>name</name>
<message>message</message>
<avatar>avatar</avatar>
</tweet>
</root>
When I change the Javascript to retrieve the PHP instead of the XML file, I get these response headers --
Chrome with PHP:
Date: Sat, 09 Apr 2011 16:10:39 GMT
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.10-2ubuntu6.7
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Length: 2102
Server: Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu)
Content-Type: application/xml; charset=UTF-8
Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=97
IE with PHP:
LOG: X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.10-2ubuntu6.7
Content-Length: 2102
Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=100
Content-Type: application/xml; charset=UTF-8
More strangeness I just discovered. I put an
AddType application/xml tweets
into my directives for that virtual server. When I then fetch my XML document with the .tweets extension, IE does get the correct content-type in the header! In fact, the header looks more like the Chrome version --
Chrome with .tweets file:
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Length: 2102
Last-Modified: Sat, 09 Apr 2011 16:33:46 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu)
ETag: "48048-836-4a07ee807ee80"
Content-Type: application/xml
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=100
IE with .tweets file:
LOG: Date: Sat, 09 Apr 2011 16:38:56 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu)
Last-Modified: Sat, 09 Apr 2011 16:33:46 GMT
ETag: "48048-836-4a07ee807ee80"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 2102
Keep-Alive: timeout=15, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Type: application/xml
So from what I can tell, with my limited Apache knowledge, it seems like the raw XML file is getting sent without the right content-type only to IE, even though I have it configured to send 'application/xml'. Chrome is receiving the right content-type. When I use PHP, Apache seems to be following my wishes and sending 'application/xml' because that is what I stamped it as in the script. Is it also strange that IE doesn't have all the same headers as Chrome? "Server" is missing for instance. When I add a custom extension of .tweets, configured to use application/xml, I also get the correct content-type.
So what could possibly be getting in the way and changing 'application/xml' to 'text/html' only for Internet Explorer? I'd hate to have to rely on my workarounds. I thought of mod-deflate, but I disabled it and the results are the same.
Any ideas?
(PS - the XML I'm including is just a sample, so the content-lengths don't match up
