How can I open a text file in javascript?

Do you mean open a file from the file system? That’s not possible using JavaScript within web browsers due to security restrictions (imagine if that warez site you “stumbled onto” could access your file system…ouch!), but it is possible within some environments, like Apple’s Dashboard.

No. I have a file on the server in the same directory. It should be something simple, I just can’t find it.

You can use XMLHttpRequest to load any remote file but you’ll be limited in how you can parse it in js. This is also more commonly known as AJAX. You may have to adapt the file to be read by the XML parser but if I remember correctly there is a way to get the raw data as a string.

paulc is right. If the file is on the same server, you can read it using XHR and use the responseText property to get at the contents. If you’re a prototype user, it would look like this:

new Ajax.Request(‘myfile.txt’, {
onComplete: function (transport) {
alert(transport.responseText);
}
});