Opening a file with JavaScript?

[FoxhoundX]

Sorry if this is out of place -- I did a search for "Javascript" and most of the threads pertaining to javascript were in here.

Anyways, I'm wondering if it's possible to store the contents of a server-side text file into a variable.

Essentially what I am trying to do is have a list in the text file. For example:

Bear:1
John:7
Devil:13
Cat: 4

Then I would like to read the text file and get each set of variables (Bear and 1, John and 7) into an array and do something with each part of the array.

Is this possible? I realize it can be easily done through PHP, but that is not an option in this case, unfortunately.

[planetsim]

Well I havent tried however there are a few possibilities that the way Id go about it may not work. Some browsers will download a text file (.txt), while others wont (will also depend on user settings etc).

However with that aside you could use the XMLHttpRequest() Apple seemed to have a relatively good explaination however a google search will produce more results (this result was first on google search).

Once the request has been made its simply getting the contents.