using xml data with tablesorter plugin?

using xml data with tablesorter plugin?

Hi,
Seems like kind of a stupid question. I'm just getting started trying to use jquery. I have some xml data that I've generated out of php and I want to turn it into a nice sortable table.

I have tried out the basic tablesorter http://tablesorter.com/docs/ plugin and it's great. I've also tried a basic "convert xml into html" because it seemed like that would be the next step for me.
Then I tried combining the two, but that doesn't seem to work. The javascript for turning the xml into html runs on the javascript page and while the output is html, if I view the page source it's not showing up in the page. Sorry if I'm not asking the question well.
Here is the code for the javascript that generates html from xml that I'm using.
// File: readXML.js

// Start function when DOM has completely loaded
$(document).ready(function(){

   // Open the students.xml file
   $.get("students.xml",{},function(xml){
         
      // Build an HTML string
      myHTMLOutput = '';
       myHTMLOutput += '<table width="98%" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="myTable" class="tablesorter">';
        myHTMLOutput += '<th>Name</th><th>Age</th><th>Phone</th><th>SSN</th>';
        
      // Run the function for each student tag in the XML file
      $('student',xml).each(function(i) {
         studentName = $(this).find("name").text();
         studentAge = $(this).find("age").text();
         studentPhone = $(this).find("phone").text();
         studentSSN = $(this).find("ssn").text();
         studentPost = $(this).find("name").attr("post");
         
         // Build row HTML data and store in string
         mydata = BuildStudentHTML(studentName,studentAge,studentPhone,studentSSN,studentPost);
         myHTMLOutput = myHTMLOutput + mydata;
      });
      myHTMLOutput += '</table>';
      
      // Update the DIV called Content Area with the HTML string
      $("#ContentArea").append(myHTMLOutput);
   });
});



function BuildStudentHTML(studentName,studentAge,studentPhone,studentSSN,studentSE){
   
   // Check to see if their is a "post" attribute in the name field
   if ((studentPost) != undefined){
      studentPostHTML = "<strong>(" + studentPost + ")</strong>";
   }
   else
   {
      studentPostHTML = "";
   }
   
   // Build HTML string and return
   output = '';
   output += '<tr>';
   output += '<td>'+ studentName + studentPostHTML + '</td>';
   output += '<td>'+ studentAge +'</td>';
   output += '<td>'+ studentPhone +'</td>';
   output += '<td>'+ studentSSN +'</td>';
   output += '</tr>';
   return output;
}
   
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