PRB: Using XPath to Query Against a User-Defined Default Namespace (288147)

MORE INFORMATION

This behavior is by design.

Implementation of XPath queries against the DOMDocument requires that namespaces be declared in the Document Object Model (DOM) before the selectNodes or selectSingleNode methods are run.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. In Visual Basic, create a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default.
2. Paste the following code into the Form_Unload() event of Form1:

       
   ' You can change the ProgID to reflect the installed version of the Microsoft XML Parser:
   ' For example, with MSXML 4, you would use: 
   '   Dim xmlDom As MSXML2.DOMDocument40
       Dim xmlDom As MSXML2.DOMDocument
       Dim nodeList As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNodeList
       Dim iNode As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode
       
   ' For example, with MSXML 4, you would use: 
   ' Set xmlDom = New MSXML2.DOMDocument40
   
       Set xmlDom = New MSXML2.DOMDocument
       
       With xmlDom
           .async = False
           .loadXML "<?xml version='1.0'?>" & _
               "<Root xmlns='uri:MyNameSpace'>" & _
               "   <Test>This is a Test</Test>" & _
               "</Root>"
           .setProperty "SelectionLanguage", "XPath"
           .setProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns='uri:MyNameSpace'"
           Set nodeList = .selectNodes("//Test")
       End With
   
       For Each iNode In nodeList
           msgbox iNode.xml
       Next iNode

3. On the Project menu, click References. From the list of available references, select Microsoft XML,v3.0 or later.
4. Run the project. No XML is returned.
5. Comment out the two setProperty methods.NOTE: Alternatively, you can modify the two lines of code as follows:

           .setProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns:myNS='uri:MyNameSpace'"
           Set nodeList = .selectNodes("//myNS:Test")
   					

6. Run the project. The XML nodes are returned.

REFERENCES

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: