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I am trying to write a script that will manipulate some data for me in an xml file. I am pretty new to VBScript but have a VB.NET and VBA background, so I feel like I kind of know what I am doing.

I thought there is probably a better way to navigate the file rather than a lot of calling InStr() or similar for each line to see if what I am looking for is there. My initial idea was to use a few methods I have seen in VB.NET from System.XML, since I had seen node navigating functions and members in that.

After investigating this, I cannot find any way to import a namespace (System.XML, or otherwise) into VBScript without it running on a webpage. I decided to look for other options instead of spending more time searching for this.

Turns out there are other ways to do what I want, using methods and objects that specifically deal with navigating nodes of an XML file. I learned that some common examples of these "systems" (for lack of a better term, because I am sure that is improper) seem to be DOM and XPath.

I started by investigating XPath (since I had seen XPath deemed superior to DOM in a few places, such as: Traversing all nodes in an XML file with VBScript). I could not find anything to discribe the basics of XPath in vbscript. There is lots on the syntax for paths and such, but I could find nothing that describes the very basics of how to actually call that syntax in VBScript to make use of it. So I moved on to the next option.

I then found many slightly different articles/questions/etc about DOM. So I gave it a try. Not a single one of them worked, all gave me errors. Mostly, it just seemed that a DOM object is never loaded correctly. Here are just a few of the methods I have tried for this:

From MSDN: a beginner's guide to XML DOM:

Set objParser = CreateObject( "Microsoft.XMLDOM" )
Dim xDoc As MSXML.DOMDocument
Set xDoc = New MSXML.DOMDocument

If xDoc.Load("C:\My Documents\cds.xml") Then
   msgbox("Success!")
Else
   msgbox("Failure!")
End If

This returned failure every time.

Based on another method:

dim xmlDom
set xmlDom = createobject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")
xmlDom.async = false
xmlDom.load ("C:\MyFileLocation\MyFile.xml")

and then I tried a few things to detect if it worked like message boxes for each node name in xmlDom.documentElement.

I have tried so many other things I can't even remember most of them.

I simply don't know what more I can try or why this isn't working for me. I am simply at a loss for what more I can try differently while still having syntax that COULD work.

So my question is: How can I navigate an XML file using VBScript without the script being imbedded in a webpage or otherwise? I need to know the extreme basics.

I know my question likely seems stupid and ignorant since this should be easily available information, but I really cannot for the life of me find the basics I need to understand how to navigate nodes in ANY WAY using JUST VBScript (not in an html or asp file or something like that).

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  • The first method is never going to work in VBScript, because it is written for VBA. That are different flavours. In VBScript, you cannot assign a type to a variable like `Dim XDoc As MSXML.Document`. You have to Dim it and then set it with a newly created document like the second method. The error in the second method is the path name, that has to be a string: `xmlDom.load "C:\MyFileLocation\MyFile.xml"`. Your question is not ignorant, VBScript and XML data is a bit difficult; The methods are not very clear and not very well documented. The example of fmunkert would give you a good start. – AutomatedChaos Mar 16 '12 at 09:49
  • actually, the error in the second method was an error in me transferring the code to here I believe. I am pretty sure I tried it as a string before. thank you for pointing that out though! Also, thanks for the bit about vba vs vbscript: in the msdn page, the first line it gives an example with vbscript, then rest is in vba. thanks msdn :/ – user1167662 Mar 16 '12 at 13:31

1 Answers1

17

Here is a small example:

Suppose you have a file called C:\Temp\Test.xml with this contents:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
   <property name="alpha" value="1"/>
   <property name="beta" value="2"/>
   <property name="gamma" value="3"/>
</root>

Then you can use this VBScript:

Set objDoc = CreateObject("MSXML.DOMDocument")
objDoc.Load "C:\Temp\Test.xml"

' Iterate over all elements contained in the <root> element:

Set objRoot = objDoc.documentElement
s = ""
t = ""
For Each child in objRoot.childNodes
   s = s & child.getAttribute("name") & " "
   t = t & child.getAttribute("value") & " "
Next
MsgBox s    ' Displays "alpha beta gamma "
MsgBox t    ' Displays "1 2 3 "

' Find a particular element using XPath:

Set objNode = objDoc.selectSingleNode("/root/property[@name='beta']")
MsgBox objNode.getAttribute("value")     ' Displays 2

I hope this helps getting you started with VBScript and XML.

  • Thank you SOOO much!!!!! This was extremely helpful! Though this isn't everything, it's jsut enough to get the ball rolling so that I can figure the rest out :) thanks again! – user1167662 Mar 16 '12 at 19:32
  • what are a few other useful methods or members relating to a DOMDocument? is there anywhere with them well documented? I am at this time wondering specifically about a "selectnodeswhich..." type method or anything to select multiple nodes instead of one. – user1167662 Mar 16 '12 at 19:42
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    You can find a list of methods and properties of IDOMDocument here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms757878(v=vs.85).aspx . In order to select multiple nodes, use `selectNodes`, together with XPath. If you are not familiar with XPath, read the tutorial on http://www.w3schools.com/xpath/xpath_intro.asp . –  Mar 17 '12 at 06:50
  • This is not working for me on Windows 7 SP1. It complains `fmunkert.vbs(9, 1) Microsoft VBScript runtime error: Object required: 'objRoot'` – lit Apr 01 '16 at 12:40