unknown Method in xPath run by VBScript

Question

the error message is

msxml3.dll: Unknown method.

/Record/CelloXml/Integration/Case/ServiceEvent[-->last()<--]/Service/Comment

My code looks like this and the error is on the case NEW

Case OLD works fine with [0] in there

'On Error Resume Next
Public Function GetParameterXml()
 GetParameterXml = _
 "<Parameters>" &_
 "<Parameter Value='Age' Code='A' Description='Age' Type='Combo' Tooltip='Would you like the newest or oldest Reason?'>" &_
 " <Options>" &_
 " <Option Code='O' Description='Oldest' Value='OLD' />" &_
 " <Option Code='N' Description='Newest' Value='NEW' />" &_
 " </Options>" &_
 "</Parameter>" &_
 "</Parameters>"
End Function
'Parameter Variables
Dim Age : Set Age = Parameters.Item( Bookmark , "Age" )
' PlaceHolder Variables
Dim CommentNodes
''' stop here and look around
stop
Select Case Age.Value
 Case "OLD":
 Set CommentNodes = XmlDoc.SelectNodes("Record/CelloXml/Integration/Case/ServiceEvent[0]/Service/Comment")
 Case "NEW":
 Set CommentNodes = XmlDoc.SelectNodes("Record/CelloXml/Integration/Case/ServiceEvent[last()]/Service/Comment")
End Select
For Each CommentNode In CommentNodes
 ReturnData = ReturnData & CommentNode.Text & MD
Next
If Len(ReturnData) > 0 Then
 ReturnData = Left(ReturnData, Len(ReturnData) - Len(MD))
Else
 ReturnData = vbNullString 
End If

for some reason it doesn't like last() is there another way to do this? I need the functionality of the last function, so that if there is only one ServiceEvent node it will still grab that node.

---

I am not a VBScript Guy (yet) and everything that I have learned about xPath is what I have learned on the job.

• Malachi: I have the complete working code now posted on CodeReview

Answer 1

Just add the following property

XmlDoc.SetProperty "SelectionLanguage", "XPath"

My test xml is as follows

<root>
 <child1>
 <child2>
 <child3>test1</child3>
 </child2>
 <child2>
 <child3>test2</child3>
 </child2>
 <child2>
 <child3>test3</child3>
 </child2>
 <child2>
 <child3>test4</child3>
 </child2>
 </child1>
</root>

My test code is as follows

strXMLReadFile = "C:\Test.xml"
Set xmlDoc = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xmlDoc.SetProperty "SelectionLanguage", "XPath"
xmlDoc.Async = False
xmlDoc.Load(strXMLReadFile)
Set nodeXML = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("//root/child1/child2[last()]")
msgbox nodeXML(0).Text

I get test4

• Malachi: I did have to change the index of the other XPath query from [0] to [1] but other than that it worked nicely, I wasn't sure how it would interact with other pieces of the application. but I think it should be fine now. I am going to have to note this for future tokens, I think I can clean the code of a few of them using this.

Answer 2

SomeNode[position() = last()]

is what you want.

• Malachi: doesn't like that either, same error except it errors out at position() instead of last()
• Malachi: this worked, but wasn't necessary after I had the property set for the document.