IE8 and reading XML via AJAX - php

Question

I have a store locator, built using Google Maps, PHP/Mysql and jQuery here:
http://tinyurl.com/4w8nwwp
Everything is dandy in FF, Safari,Chrome and Opera.
IE7, 8 cannot read the XML that is dynamically generated by parse_location.php
The AJAX code:
function reloadMap(map, dataString) {
markersArray = [];
var infoWindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({content: "loading...", maxWidth:100});
var storeListHtml = '<h2>Name <span style="margin-left:252px;">Address</span></h2><ul>';
$.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: "parse_location.php",
data: dataString,
success: function(text){
count = -1;
$(text).find("list").each(function()
{
count++;
if(count == 0)
{
var burnsvilleMN = new google.maps.LatLng($(this).attr("lat"),$(this).attr("lng"));
map.panTo(burnsvilleMN);
}
var store = [$(this).attr("name"), $(this).attr("address"), $(this).attr("lat"), $(this).attr("lng"), count];
var name = $(this).attr("name");
var address = $(this).attr("address");
var point = new google.maps.LatLng($(this).attr("lat"),$(this).attr("lng"));
var html = "<span class='info'><b>" + name + "</b> <br/>" + address + "</span>";
var image = new google.maps.MarkerImage('images/icon_dot2.png');
var shadow = new google.maps.MarkerImage('images/icon_dot_shadow.png');
var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
map: map,
position: point,
icon: image,
shadow:shadow
//shadow: icon.shadow
});
//markersArray.push(marker);
storeListHtml += "<li class='store'><a href='javascript:myclick("+count+")'><div class='store-name'>"+name+"</div><div class='store-add'> "+address+"</div></a></li>";
bindInfoWindow(marker, map, infoWindow, html);
});
storeListHtml += '</ul>';
$("#store-list").html(storeListHtml);
}
});
}
As you can see, this involves calling parse_location.php, getting the XML generated by this code:
// uncommenting the following line causes ff, safari et al to not show anything.
// header('Content-Type: text/xml; charset=UTF-8');
$responce = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n";
$responce .= "<location>\n";
$city = $_GET['city'];
$category = $_GET['category'];
[SQL Query here ]
$result = mysql_query($sql);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$responce .= "<list name=\"".$row["name"]."\"
address=\"".$row["street_address"]." ".$row["city"]." ".$row["state"].", ".$row["zip"]."\"
lat=\"".$row["lat"]."\"
lng=\"".$row["lng"]."\" />";
}
$responce .= "</location>";
$responce8 = utf8_encode($responce);
echo $responce8;
Any pointers???
Rishi

Answer 1

Add a Content-Type header to your php code like this:
header('Content-Type: text/xml'); // Try "application/xml" too
Also, adding another IE-specific header might help:
header('X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff');
You need to do this before outputting anything else of course, since they are headers.