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MS Office Forum / Word / Programming / November 2007Please help:need to read XML, edit, and write back to XML file
I'm using Word 2003. I use a proprietary Java program that takes all the information in the various forms and generates an XML file. There are times I need to move information between files. I tried to explore this in the Excel and Access NG, because the data format would lend itself very well to a spreadsheet or table. But I reached a dead end. My thought is to create a macro that would find the proper tags and parse out all the data in between the correct tags into a table or spreadsheet. Then, after I have cut / pasted / mutilated the data as required, I can write the new data back into an array, append the correct tags, and write it back into the original XML file. One problem is that when I open an XML file in Word 2003, I see on screen the cute little visual representations of the tags - but they aren't really there. At least, they don't show up in Print Preview, and Paragraph.Range.Text doesn't see them. I found a clue in one NG post and opened the Script Editor (ALT + SHIFT + F11), and saw tags and much more. But I still have no idea how to accomplish what seems to be the simple project of writing out the data from certain tags and then writing it back when I'm done. Can anyone please drop-kick me in a good direction to get started towards this? Ed Ed, If you were only looking for a few tags, it would be simple enough to parse out the text strings in a VBA routine using InStr and Mid functions but I gather you're dealing with a more complex scenario. Try doing a web search using the term MSXML2.DOMDocument and I think you may find some helpful links with examples of using that object within VBA. Steve > I'm using Word 2003. I use a proprietary Java program that takes all > the information in the various forms and generates an XML file. There [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > Ed Actually, Steve, I really am (I think!!) just looking for a few tags. The problem is that when I view the doc in Word, I don't see <tag>text< \tag>. Instead I see this nice colored autoshape-looking graphic with "text" in the middle of it. As I ssaid, I tried iterating through all the paragraphs and trying different outputs of the Paragraph.Range - .Text, .XMLNode, and so forth - to see if I could find the tag, but no luck so far. If I open the XML in NotePad or WordPad, then I see <tag>text<\tag>. But I don't know how to capture and manipulate that with Word VBA, and then have the confidence of writing it back into the XML file. I will search for the MSXML2.DOMDocument and see what I get. Thanks for the input. Ed > Ed, > [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Ed, Take a look at this link. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/oct07/hey1023.mspx The information is for extracting text with a vbScript file but almost all of the code can be used in a VBA routine. At the end where they use WScript.Echo That is very similar to MsgBox and the variable that comes afterward is the text that was pulled from between the tags. I think I'd be inclined to do this from a VBA routine in Excel and bring text strings into different cells rather than messing with a Word table or multiple paragraphs. Steve > Actually, Steve, I really am (I think!!) just looking for a few tags. > The problem is that when I view the doc in Word, I don't see <tag>text< [quoted text clipped - 57 lines] >> >> - Show quoted text - Thank you, Steve!! This got me farther than anything else yet! And it's perfect - it puts everything in a string with all the tags, which I can then parse into separate elements and write into an Excel worksheet or a Word table. (Excel may be better, but with some of my data, Excel's desirte to automatically format cells rather than just accept whatever comes may be a problem.) Okay - now comes the fun part: After I've done all my data manipulations in Word or Excel, I can write everything back into a string. Is it then as simple as replacing the original string with the new string and closing the file? Ed > Ed, > [quoted text clipped - 73 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Ed, If you stick with the Scripting FileSystemObject, you can once again read the entire XML (text) file into a string and then use the 'Replace' function to replace the tags and text between them with your updated strings. When you work with text files with the filesystemobject, you open them for reading, writing or appending. Always keep in mind that if you open the file for writing, existing text will be overwritten so make sure you back up your xml files as you test options. The scripting site I directed you to has scores of other sample scripts that might give you ideas. You might want to take a look at what Astrid posted in this thread. It might be an even more efficient way to handle the problem. Steve > Thank you, Steve!! This got me farther than anything else yet! > [quoted text clipped - 103 lines] >> >> - Show quoted text - > You might want to take a look at what Astrid posted in this thread. It > might be an even more efficient way to handle the problem. I copied Astrid's code into a VBA module and ran it, but it didn't give me any of the tags. It did, though, give me whole chinks of info that I didn't see in the doc. I think I would rather work with the whole file simply as a large string, as the scripting code gave me. If I parse carefully along the tags I know should be there, I ought to be able to do just about anything I want and build a new string with my new data - providing simply writing that new string back into the document won't screw things up! But, yes, for that reason, I an working with unneeded copies of other documents. That much I have learned! Thanks for all the input and direction. Ed > Ed, > [quoted text clipped - 121 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Hi Ed, Something like this? Dim oXMLNode As XMLNode For Each oXMLNode In ActiveDocument.XMLNodes Debug.Print oXMLNode.BaseName & " " & oXMLNode.Text Next Set oXMLNode = Nothing > I'm using Word 2003. I use a proprietary Java program that takes all > the information in the various forms and generates an XML file. There [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > Ed |
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