Getting JSON from a website with no visible files using p5.js

Getting JSON from a website with no visible files using p5.js - javascript

I am trying to import a json file from a website using p5.js, and i thought it would be quite easy, however when i tried it i realized the json was actually just in plain text on the page (It is the only thing on the page). I checked chrome web tools to look at index.html, but i was greeted by "(index)", is it a problem with google or am i just going to have to use something else than this?
function preload() {
httpGet('leaderboard.popcat.click', 'json', function(response) {
});
}
//there are the setup and draw functions aswell
I got an error when i ran the code aswell, it was
Error: JSONP request to url failed
here is a picture of the page btw, (the url is leaderboard.popcat.click)
EDIT: The main problem i am having is that there is no file in https://leaderboard.popcat.click/, not the getting of json.
The network tab says no such url exists, and i believe that is because of the fact that i didn't specify a file.
Here is the console output aswell

I solved my issue by starting chrome in no-cors mode or whatever it's called AND using the full path of the website. I got it into no-cors mode by making a shortcut with this link
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --disable-web-security --user-data-dir=~/chromeTemp"
and running it as an administrator

Related

warings:: DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom/browser-polyfill.js.map [duplicate]

I'm trying to display an image selected from the local machine and I need the location of that image for a JavaScript function. But I'm unable to get the location.
To get the image location, I tried using console.log, but nothing returns.
console.log(document.getElementById("uploadPreview"));
Here's the HTML code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<div align="center" style="padding-top: 50px">
<img align="center" id="uploadPreview" style="width: 100px; height: 100px;" />
</div>
<div align="center" style="padding-left: 30px">
<input id="uploadImage" type="file" name="myPhoto" onchange="PreviewImage();" />
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
function PreviewImage() {
var oFReader = new FileReader();
oFReader.readAsDataURL(document.getElementById("uploadImage").files[0]);
oFReader.onload = function (oFREvent) {
document.getElementById("uploadPreview").src = oFREvent.target.result;
console.log(document.getElementById("uploadPreview").src);
};
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
Console Output:
Here's the warning:
DevTools failed to load SourceMap: Could not load content for
chrome-extension://alplpnakfeabeiebipdmaenpmbgknjce/include.preload.js.map:
HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME

That's because Chrome added support for source maps.
Go to the developer tools (F12 in the browser), then select the three dots in the upper right corner, and go to Settings.
Then, look for Sources, and disable the options:
"Enable JavaScript source maps"
"Enable CSS source maps"
If you do that, that would get rid of the warnings. It has nothing to do with your code. Check the developer tools in other pages and you will see the same warning.

Go to Developer tools → Settings → Console → tick "Selected context only". The warnings will be hidden. You can see them again by unticking the same box.
The "Selected context only" means only the top, iframe, worker and extension contexts. Which is all that you'll need, the vast majority of the time.

Fixing "SourceMap" error messages in the Development Tools Console caused by Chrome extensions:
Examples caused by McAfee extensions:
DevTools failed to load SourceMap: Could not load content for chrome-extension://klekeajafkkpokaofllcadenjdckhinm/sourceMap/content.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
DevTools failed to load SourceMap: Could not load content for chrome-extension://fheoggkfdfchfphceeifdbepaooicaho/sourceMap/chrome/content.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
DevTools failed to load SourceMap: Could not load content for chrome-extension://fheoggkfdfchfphceeifdbepaooicaho/sourceMap/chrome/iframe_handler.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
If you are developing, then you need "Enable JavaScript source maps" and "Enable CSS source maps" checked to be able see your source code in Chrome Developer Tools. Unchecking those takes away your ability to debug your source code. It is like turning off the fire alarm instead of putting out the fire. You do not want to do that.
Instead you want to find the extensions that are causing the messages and turn them off. Here is how you do that:
Go to the three dots in the upper right hand corner of Chrome.
Go to "More Tools" and click on "Extensions".
Do this for one extension at a time until no more "SourceMap" errors are in the console:
Turn off the extension by sliding the switch to the left.
Reload the page that you were using the Development Tools on.
Check if any of the "SourceMap" error messages disappeared.
If any did, then that extension was causing those messages.
Otherwise, that extension can be turned back on.
After determining which extensions caused the issue either:
If you need it, then contact the maker to have them fix the issue.
Otherwise, remove the extension.

I stumbled upon this Stack Overflow question after discovering loads of source map errors in the console for the Edge browser. (I think I had disabled the warnings in the Chrome browser long ago.)
For me it meant first realising what a source map is; please refer to Macro Mazzon's answer to understand this. Since it's a good idea, it was just a case of finding out how to turn them on.
It's as simple as adding this line in your webpack.config.js file -
module.exports = {
devtool: "source-map",
}
Now that Edge could detect a source map, the errors disappeared.
Apologies if this answer insults anybody's intelligence, but maybe somebody reading this will be as clueless about source maps as I was.

The include.prepload.js file will have a line like below, probably as the last line:
//# sourceMappingURL=include.prepload.js.map
Delete it and the error will go away.

For me, the problem was caused not by the application in development itself, but by the Chrome extension React Developer Tool. I solved it partially by right-clicking the extension icon in the toolbar, clicking "Manage extension" and then enabling "Allow access to files URLs." But this measure fixed just some of the alerts.
I found issues in the React repository that suggests the cause is a bug in their extension and is planned to be corrected soon - see issues 20091 and 20075.
You can confirm is extension-related by accessing your application in an anonymous tab without any extension enabled.

Chrome has changed the UI in 2022, so this is a new version of the most upvoted reply.
Open the dev tools (hit F12 or Option + Command + J)
Select the gear at the top. There are two gears in that area, so be sure to select the one at the top, top.
Locate the Sources section
Deselect "Enable JavaScript source maps"
Check to see if it worked!

Right: it has nothing to do with your code. I've found two valid solutions to this warning (not just disabling it). To better understand what a source map is, I suggest you check out this answer, where it explains how it's something that helps you debug:
The .map files are for JavaScript and CSS (and now TypeScript too) files that have been minified. They are called SourceMaps. When you minify a file, like the angular.js file, it takes thousands of lines of pretty code and turns it into only a few lines of ugly code. Hopefully, when you are shipping your code to production, you are using the minified code instead of the full, unminified version. When your app is in production, and has an error, the sourcemap will help take your ugly file, and will allow you to see the original version of the code. If you didn't have the sourcemap, then any error would seem cryptic at best.
First solution: apparently, Mr Heelis was the closest one: you should add the .map file and there are some tools that help you with this problem (Grunt, Gulp and Google closure for example, quoting the answer). Otherwise you can download the .map file from official sites like Bootstrap, jQuery, font-awesome, preload and so on... (maybe installing things like popper or swiper by the npm command in a random folder and copying just the .map file in your JavaScript/CSS destination folder)
Second solution (the one I used): add the source files using a CDN (content delivery network). (Here are all the advantages of using a CDN). Using content delivery network (CDN) you can simply add the CDN link, instead of the path to your folder. You can find CNDs on official websites (Bootstrap, jquery, popper, etc.) or you can easily search on some websites like Cloudflare, cdnjs, etc.

Extensions without enough permissions on Chrome can cause these warnings, for example for React developer tools. Check if the following procedure solves your problem:
Right click on the extension icon.
Or
Go to extensions.
Click the three-dot in the row of React developer tool.
Then choose "This can read and write site data".
You should see three options in the list. Pick one that is strict enough based on how much you trust the extension and also satisfies the extension's needs.

I appreciate this is part of your extensions, but I see this message in all sorts of places these days, and I hate it: how I fixed it (this fix seems to massively speed up the browser too) was by adding a dead file
physically create the file it wants it/where it wants it, as a blank file (for example, "popper.min.js.map")
put this in the blank file
{
"version": 1,
"mappings": "",
"sources": [],
"names": [],
"file": "popper.min.js"
}
make sure that "file": "*******" in the content of the blank file matches the name of your file ******.map (minus the word ".map")
(I suspect you could physically add this dead file method to the addon yourself.)

I do not think the warnings you have received are related. I had the same warnings which turned out to be the Chrome extension React Dev Tools. I removed the extension and the errors were gone.

You have just missing files.
Go to the website https://www.cdnpkg.com/.
Download what you need and copy it to the right folder.

For me, the warnings were caused by the Selenium IDE Chrome extension. These warnings appeared in the Console on every page load:
DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd/assets/atoms.js.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd/assets/polyfills.js.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd/assets/escape.js.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd/assets/playback.js.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd/assets/record.js.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
Since Selenium IDE was already set to be able to read site data on all sites, I uninstalled it. (I read in another comment here that you might try enabling more permissions for an extension instead of removing it.) In my case, removing Selenium IDE (Chrome extension) got rid of the warnings.

It is also possible to add the file that is missing, aside with other .js libraries in the same folder (no need to reference the .map in the .html file, <script> tag).
I had the same error, when trying to code in Backbone.js.
The problematic file was backbone-min.js, and the line that created the error was sourceMappingURL=backbone-min.map.
After downloading the missing file (the link comes from here), the error disappeared.

I had the same problem. I tried to disable the extensions one by one to check it, and finally realized I had Adblock enabled, which was causing this issue. To remove that error I followed the step below,
Three dots (top right corner).
Click More tools --> extensions.
Disable the Adblock.
Reload the page.
And it should work now.

DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb/browser-polyfill.js.map: System error: net::ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND
Disable the Chrome extension "Adblock Plus - free ad blocker". https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-plus-free-ad-bloc/cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb
Lately this error is caused by the extension.

Problems with Debugging and Sourcemaps in Web Browsers
Hope this clarifies the technicals behind the problem...knowing how things works helps some :)
This browser error means it has some compiled version of your JavaScript in a sourcemap intermediate file it or some 3rd party created that is now needed when debugging that same script in "devtools" in your web browser.
This can happen if your script fails (or in your case trying to get an image source hidden in the sourcemap code that created the script) but whose script error is tied to some JavaScript that got created from an original sourcemap file that now cannot be found to debug that same error. So it's an error about an error, a missing debugging file creating a new error. (crazy, huh?)
This error is likely coming from an extension in the web browser and is reporting it has generated a script error it has recorded in the console.log window of devtools (press F12 in the browser). The error is likely from the extension (not your code) saying it has some code that contains an address to a sourcemap file it cannot access, has a bad URI/URL address, is blocked, or that is missing.
The browser only needs this sourcemap file if a developer using devtools will need to debug the original script again.
A sourcemap, by the way, is a file that translates or transpiles code from one language to another language. Often this is a file that the browser uses to translate this source code into a child script like JavaScript/ECMAScript, or when it needs to do the opposite and recreate the source file from the child script. In most cases this file is not needed at all as a 3rd party software program has already compiled or transpiled the source code into the child script for the browser. For example, developers who like TypeScript use it to create JavaScript. This source code gets transpiled into JavaScript so the browser script engine can run it. The URI/URL to this sourcemap file is usually at the top of the javaScript or application compiled code file in a format like //#....
When this intermediary transpile file is missing or blocked for security reasons in a web browser, the application will usually not care unless it needs the source file for debugging the child script using this source file. In that case it will complain when it feels it needs this file and cannot find it, as it uses it to recreate the source file for the code running in the browser when debugging the script in order to allow a developer to debug the original source code. When it cannot find it, it means that any developer trying to debug it will not be able to do so, and is stuck with the compiled code only. So it is safe to turn off these errors in the various ways mentioned in this post. It should not affect your own scripts if it is connected to an extension. Even if it is related to your own scripts, it is still unlikely you need it unless you plan to run debugging from devtools.

In my case, it was JSON Viewer extension that was blocking the source map files from being loaded

In my case i made silly mistake by adding bootstrap.min.js instead of bootstrap.bundel.js :)

You need to open Chrome in developer mode: select More tools, then Extensions and select Developer mode

Chrome browser console warning [https://s3.amazonaws.com/onelogin-sourcemaps/extensions/chrome/production~] [duplicate]

I'm trying to display an image selected from the local machine and I need the location of that image for a JavaScript function. But I'm unable to get the location.
To get the image location, I tried using console.log, but nothing returns.
console.log(document.getElementById("uploadPreview"));
Here's the HTML code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<div align="center" style="padding-top: 50px">
<img align="center" id="uploadPreview" style="width: 100px; height: 100px;" />
</div>
<div align="center" style="padding-left: 30px">
<input id="uploadImage" type="file" name="myPhoto" onchange="PreviewImage();" />
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
function PreviewImage() {
var oFReader = new FileReader();
oFReader.readAsDataURL(document.getElementById("uploadImage").files[0]);
oFReader.onload = function (oFREvent) {
document.getElementById("uploadPreview").src = oFREvent.target.result;
console.log(document.getElementById("uploadPreview").src);
};
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
Console Output:
Here's the warning:
DevTools failed to load SourceMap: Could not load content for
chrome-extension://alplpnakfeabeiebipdmaenpmbgknjce/include.preload.js.map:
HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME

That's because Chrome added support for source maps.
Go to the developer tools (F12 in the browser), then select the three dots in the upper right corner, and go to Settings.
Then, look for Sources, and disable the options:
"Enable JavaScript source maps"
"Enable CSS source maps"
If you do that, that would get rid of the warnings. It has nothing to do with your code. Check the developer tools in other pages and you will see the same warning.

Go to Developer tools → Settings → Console → tick "Selected context only". The warnings will be hidden. You can see them again by unticking the same box.
The "Selected context only" means only the top, iframe, worker and extension contexts. Which is all that you'll need, the vast majority of the time.

I stumbled upon this Stack Overflow question after discovering loads of source map errors in the console for the Edge browser. (I think I had disabled the warnings in the Chrome browser long ago.)
For me it meant first realising what a source map is; please refer to Macro Mazzon's answer to understand this. Since it's a good idea, it was just a case of finding out how to turn them on.
It's as simple as adding this line in your webpack.config.js file -
module.exports = {
devtool: "source-map",
}
Now that Edge could detect a source map, the errors disappeared.
Apologies if this answer insults anybody's intelligence, but maybe somebody reading this will be as clueless about source maps as I was.

The include.prepload.js file will have a line like below, probably as the last line:
//# sourceMappingURL=include.prepload.js.map
Delete it and the error will go away.

For me, the problem was caused not by the application in development itself, but by the Chrome extension React Developer Tool. I solved it partially by right-clicking the extension icon in the toolbar, clicking "Manage extension" and then enabling "Allow access to files URLs." But this measure fixed just some of the alerts.
I found issues in the React repository that suggests the cause is a bug in their extension and is planned to be corrected soon - see issues 20091 and 20075.
You can confirm is extension-related by accessing your application in an anonymous tab without any extension enabled.

Chrome has changed the UI in 2022, so this is a new version of the most upvoted reply.
Open the dev tools (hit F12 or Option + Command + J)
Select the gear at the top. There are two gears in that area, so be sure to select the one at the top, top.
Locate the Sources section
Deselect "Enable JavaScript source maps"
Check to see if it worked!

Extensions without enough permissions on Chrome can cause these warnings, for example for React developer tools. Check if the following procedure solves your problem:
Right click on the extension icon.
Or
Go to extensions.
Click the three-dot in the row of React developer tool.
Then choose "This can read and write site data".
You should see three options in the list. Pick one that is strict enough based on how much you trust the extension and also satisfies the extension's needs.

I appreciate this is part of your extensions, but I see this message in all sorts of places these days, and I hate it: how I fixed it (this fix seems to massively speed up the browser too) was by adding a dead file
physically create the file it wants it/where it wants it, as a blank file (for example, "popper.min.js.map")
put this in the blank file
{
"version": 1,
"mappings": "",
"sources": [],
"names": [],
"file": "popper.min.js"
}
make sure that "file": "*******" in the content of the blank file matches the name of your file ******.map (minus the word ".map")
(I suspect you could physically add this dead file method to the addon yourself.)

I do not think the warnings you have received are related. I had the same warnings which turned out to be the Chrome extension React Dev Tools. I removed the extension and the errors were gone.

You have just missing files.
Go to the website https://www.cdnpkg.com/.
Download what you need and copy it to the right folder.

For me, the warnings were caused by the Selenium IDE Chrome extension. These warnings appeared in the Console on every page load:
DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd/assets/atoms.js.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd/assets/polyfills.js.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd/assets/escape.js.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd/assets/playback.js.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://mooikfkahbdckldjjndioackbalphokd/assets/record.js.map: HTTP error: status code 404, net::ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME
Since Selenium IDE was already set to be able to read site data on all sites, I uninstalled it. (I read in another comment here that you might try enabling more permissions for an extension instead of removing it.) In my case, removing Selenium IDE (Chrome extension) got rid of the warnings.

It is also possible to add the file that is missing, aside with other .js libraries in the same folder (no need to reference the .map in the .html file, <script> tag).
I had the same error, when trying to code in Backbone.js.
The problematic file was backbone-min.js, and the line that created the error was sourceMappingURL=backbone-min.map.
After downloading the missing file (the link comes from here), the error disappeared.

I had the same problem. I tried to disable the extensions one by one to check it, and finally realized I had Adblock enabled, which was causing this issue. To remove that error I followed the step below,
Three dots (top right corner).
Click More tools --> extensions.
Disable the Adblock.
Reload the page.
And it should work now.

DevTools failed to load source map: Could not load content for chrome-extension://cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb/browser-polyfill.js.map: System error: net::ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND
Disable the Chrome extension "Adblock Plus - free ad blocker". https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-plus-free-ad-bloc/cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb
Lately this error is caused by the extension.

In my case, it was JSON Viewer extension that was blocking the source map files from being loaded

In my case i made silly mistake by adding bootstrap.min.js instead of bootstrap.bundel.js :)

You need to open Chrome in developer mode: select More tools, then Extensions and select Developer mode

PDF.js not working when deploying to different Server in IE

I have a local IIS site where i developed some code with PDF.js. There it worked fine to load a specific PDF and read the text contents from it.
Then I copied everything to the a library in a SharePoint Server (thats the only difference, IIS vs SharePoint) and changed all references. The code does not throw any Errors, with debugging level info it just prints
Info: Cannot use postMessage Transfers
to the console. Adding a console.log line into the PDF.js catch block of the promise did not result in any new information. It doesn't even get to the first logging inside the then:
var pdfobj = PDFJS.getDocument(docPath);
pdfobj.then(function (pdf) {
console.log(pdf);
any ideas?
EDITS: Updated from PDF.JS 1.1 to 1.2
There are not many error logs in PDF.js. I accidently hardcoded a wrong URL where even the server is non existent... and no error log, not even the then(...).catch(...) is called?
It is working now in Firefox but not in IE and I cannot see any reason for this. The Info message about Cannot use postMessage Transfers is also only displayed in IE (using IE 11).

It does work now. I am not sure what I did to fix it, but I will update this answer when I know. I think it has something to do with the directory structure of the PDF.js files. Previously I just uploaded all JS files (there were no errors though).
Still there is no exception handling when the PDF does not exist.

jQuery.get() returns errors [duplicate]

This question already has an answer here:
Console shows error about Content Security policy and lots of failed GET requests
(1 answer)
Closed 8 years ago.
I use $.get function to get some html from exetrnal website in my chrome extension:
$.get(url, function(data) {
var someImgs= $(data).find('img[width="90"]').parent();
});
But I see such errors in my console:
chrome-extension://nqzxdldmasxchnkgibeedilpknlbndiho/files/image.png
I don't use any images in my extension, and I know this is link to image on exetrnal website.
What I tried:
wrap $.get() function into try-catch
handle error using $.ajaxError()
replace relevant links /files/image.png to full path: http://website/files/image.png using data.replace()
run example code in jsFiddle: errors are the same but despite of that code continiues running.
No ideas now. What I do wrong?
UPD: Error doesn't occur when I don't touch to data. When inside $.get I simple type console.log(data) there are no errors
UPD2: I also tried to download all the images whcih are mentioned in error messages and put them in the same path in my extension as on external website
UPD3: As it was mentioned in comments, images from remote website are reffering to relative paths. So I tried to replace relative paths in 'src' attribute to full, using this code:
var data = data.replace('/sites/default/', 'http://website/sites/default/');
As you guess - result is the same, same errors.
UPD4: Seems like replacement wasn't successful. I checked the above replacement and it says nothing changed:
console.log(data.indexOf('src="/sites/default/')); //returns integer
So, actually it was solved by downloading remote images to my extension foled. Little 'nasty' way but the only workable. Thanks to all the commentators that helped me to find out the source of problem.

Edit: On second look it appears that the html of the page at url contains images with relative file paths (like /files/menu_banners/ktc_apple.png), but when you interpret it and treat it with jQuery as a DOM object, it fails to load them because their urls are now interpreted as relative to the extension (cross-origin restrictions still apply, but that's not the issue since you've edited the manifest)
--
You are trying to make a cross-origin request, but jQuery isn't aware of a correct API to use when included in an extension and that is why it's failing. You can read more about XHR in Google Chrome extensions; you basically need to allow cross-domain access to your website URL:
By adding hosts or host match patterns (or both) to the permissions
section of the manifest file, the extension can request access to
remote servers outside of its origin:
//manifest.json
{
"name": "My extension",
...
"permissions": [
"http://www.google.com/"
],
...
}
So in your manifest you should include your http://website url, or use a wildcard http://*/ and allow access to any domain (handy in dev, terrible idea security-wise in production)

jQuery $.get from local directory producing different behaviour in IE vs FF, Chrome

I have the following simple jQuery:
$.get('Data.csv', function(data) {
alert(data);
});
Data.csv is stored in the same folder as the html file which accesses it.
If I run this in all browsers when the url is a domain (i.e. www.mysite.com/path/to/file), then the alert will display a string value of the contents of Data.csv.
If I create a hosts file link to the local folder (i.e. host.mysite.com/path/to/file) then alert will display a string value of the contents of Data.csv in all browsers.
If I run this in IE 9 when the url opens the file locally (i.e c:\path\to\file) then the alert will display a string value of the contents of Data.csv.
However, if I run this in FF or Chrome when the url opens the file locally (i.e file:///c:/path/to/file) then the alert will display [object XMLDocument].
Does anyone know why this is and how to open the local file as a string in FF and Chrome?
n.b. - I have tested this in order to rule out cross-platform-security issues. I don't think that that is the cause because otherwise it would not assign the content of the csv file at all.
Thanks in advance.

You're running into issues with the Same Origin Policy. If you look into your browser's console, you'll see something along the lines of Origin null is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin.
There's two possible fixes:
Run your stuff on a local web server like XAMPP, MAMP or the like.
Disable all web security on Chrome Startup, which you obviously don't want to do in real life. Wouldn't work in FF, either. So, stick with 1. ;)

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