Generate XML with the XML Document Object Model

XML Document Object Model

There are four main Objects:
1. XMLDOMDocument
2. XMLDOMNode
3. XMLDOMNodeList
4. XMLDOMNamedNodeMap

In this tutorial we will see XMLDOMDocument and XMLDOMNode objects.

XMLDOMDocument

By name, it is clear that XMLDOMDocument is the top-level node within the XML DOM hierarchy. (Don't get confused about root node... It's different).

Set objXMLdoc = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")

Table A lists some of the properties and methods in XMLDOMDocument object.

Table A: A selection of XMLDOMDocument's properties and methods

Creating nodes

The XMLDOMDocument object provides two methods for creating nodes or XMLDOMNode objects: CreateElement and CreateNode. Which one you use depends on how much information you need to provide about the node. When you use the CreateElement method, you simply provide the node's name, such as

Set objXMLroot = objXMLdoc _
        .CreateElement("ORDER_STATUS")

With the CreateNode method, you specify the node type, the node's name, and an associated namespace. (An XML namespace lets you create multiple XML elements with the same name within the same document.) So, for example, to use the CreateNode method, you could use the following code:

Set objXMLroot = objXMLdoc _
        .createNode("element", _
        "ORDER_STATUS", "Space1")

Once you create a node, you must add it to the XML document. To do so, use the AppendChild method. For instance, continuing with the previous example, you'd use

objXMLdoc.AppendChild(objXMLroot)

In addition to the AppendChild method, the XMLDOMNode object exposes three other methods for controlling XML nodes: ReplaceChild, RemoveChild, and InsertBefore.

Assigning node attributes

Once you create a node, you may want to assign attributes to it, such as a unique identifier, or other property-type information. To do so, you use the SetAttribute method. This method accepts two parameters--the attribute name and the attribute's value. For example, the following code creates an attribute named SHIPPING_DATASOURCE and assigns it the value NORTH_ATLANTIC_SHIPPING:

objXMLroot.SetAttribute _
        "SHIPPING_DATASOURCE", _

        "NORTH_ATLANTIC_SHIPPING"

Adding child nodes

To create child nodes, you use the CreateElement or CreateNode methods we described earlier, and then append them to the appropriate parent node. For instance, suppose we want to create an XML node called PUBLISHER_DISCLAIMER. To do so, we'd attach this node to the document's root node, as in

Set objXMLChildTestNode = objXMLdoc _
        .createNode("element", _
        "PUBLISHER_DISCLAIMER","")

objXMLdoc.DocumentElement _
        .appendChild (objXMLChildTestNode)

Assign data to a node

Sooner or later after creating all these nodes, you're going to need to assign data to them. After all, that's the whole point of XML. To do so, you create a node as usual, then assign the data to the node's Text property. For example, the following code creates a XML node called PUBLISHED_DATE and assigns the date as its value:

Set objPublishDate = objXMLdoc.CreateNode("element", _
        "PUBLISHED_DATE", "")

dShippedDate = FormatDateTime(Date, 2)
objPublishDate.Text = dShippedDate

objXMLChildTestNode.appendChild(objPublishDate)

Last Updated: 29-12-2005