populating a drop down menu with xml file

Question

I have the following code which is loading an xml file to populate a dropdown menu. Right now the value equals the option text but I would like to have the value equal to some n

Answer 1

First, start by putting the numbers in your xml file. If they are related to the dropdown item, i suggest as an attribute.

example:

    Acura
    Aston Martin
    Audi
...

then in your jquery loop:

$(xml).find('dropdown').each(function(){
     $(this).find('make').each(function(){
          var value = $(this).attr('value');
          var label = $(this).text();
          select.append(""+label+"");
     });
});

Note that you could probably simplify and speed up your jquery like this (untested):

$('make', xml).each(function(){
              var value = $(this).attr('value');
              var label = $(this).text();
              select.append(""+label+"");
    });

UPDATE

For another, important, performance boost, do only one append() instead of as many append() as you have "make" nodes.

var optionsHtml = new Array();
    $('make', xml).each(function(){
                  var value = $(this).attr('value');
                  var label = $(this).text();
optionsHtml.push( ""+label+"");

        });
optionsHtml = optionsHtml.join('');
select.append(optionsHtml);