Cascading Dropdown List using VBScript, XPATH and an XML back-end

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I’ve been working on more toolsets recently, and we needed a way to populate multiple dropdown lists in a HTA file, and make them cascade. Cascading is basically where the results in the second dropdown list are dictated by the selection in the first dropdown list. For example:

Let’s say our first dropdown list contained car manufacturers, and the second dropdown list contained models. If I selected ‘Ford’ from the manufacturers dropdown list, I would want the model dropdown list to show me a list of all cars made by Ford (Fiesta, Mondeo, Escort etc etc) and so on.

Anyway, in our example we’ll use a good ol’ list of football clubs. In dropdown list 1, we want a list of football clubs. And in dropdown list 2, we want to see a list of players. We also want to keep track of the stadium that each clubs plays in. Here’s our sample XML chunk – we’ll call it ‘footballclubs.xml’:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<PREMIERLEAGUEFOOTBALLCLUBS>
<FOOTBALLCLUBS>
<FOOTBALLCLUB>
<FOOTBALLCLUBNAME>Manchester United FC</FOOTBALLCLUBNAME>
<FOOTBALLCLUBSTADIUM>Old Trafford</FOOTBALLCLUBSTADIUM>
<PLAYERS>				
<PLAYER>
<PLAYERNAME>Rio Ferdinand</PLAYERNAME>
</PLAYER>		
<PLAYER>
<PLAYERNAME>Nemanja Vidic</PLAYERNAME>
</PLAYER>				
</PLAYERS>
</FOOTBALLCLUB>
<FOOTBALLCLUB>
<FOOTBALLCLUBNAME>Chelsea FC</FOOTBALLCLUBNAME>
<FOOTBALLCLUBSTADIUM>Stamford Bridge</FOOTBALLCLUBSTADIUM>
<PLAYERS>				
<PLAYER>
<PLAYERNAME>Frank Lampard</PLAYERNAME>
</PLAYER>				
</PLAYERS>
</FOOTBALLCLUB>
<FOOTBALLCLUB>
<FOOTBALLCLUBNAME>Arsenal FC</FOOTBALLCLUBNAME>
<FOOTBALLCLUBSTADIUM>Emirates Stadium</FOOTBALLCLUBSTADIUM>
<PLAYERS>				
<PLAYER>
<PLAYERNAME>Keiron Gibbs</PLAYERNAME>
</PLAYER>		
<PLAYER>
<PLAYERNAME>Jack Wilshere</PLAYERNAME>
</PLAYER>
<PLAYER>
<PLAYERNAME>Aaron Ramsey</PLAYERNAME>
</PLAYER>				
</PLAYERS>
</FOOTBALLCLUB>		
</FOOTBALLCLUBS>
</PREMIERLEAGUEFOOTBALLCLUBS>

You can see that the football clubs are: Manchester Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal. You should also be able to see the players for each club, and the stadium they play in.

Now we’ll write a HTA file, and save it in the same location as ”footballclubs.xml’:

<html>
<head>
<hta:application
id="oHTA"
applicationname="XML Cascading Drop Down"
singleinstance="yes"
windowstate="normal"
border="no"
maximize="no"
caption="XML Cascading Drop Down"
icon="alkane.ico"
showintaskbar="yes"
sysmenu="yes"> 
<title>XML Cascading Drop Down 1.0.0</title>
</head>
<script language="vbscript">
' *************
'
' Version 1.0.0
'
'**************
Option Explicit
Dim strXMLFile
Sub InitialWindow
Dim intHorizontal, intVertical, intLeft, intTop, objItem	
Dim menu_width : menu_width = "450"
Dim menu_height : menu_height = "420"	
' This moves the window to the middle of the screen
Dim objWMIService : Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\cimv2") 
Dim colItems : Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_DesktopMonitor WHERE DeviceID='DesktopMonitor1'") 
For Each objItem in ColItems 
intHorizontal = objItem.ScreenWidth 
intVertical = objItem.ScreenHeight 
Next 
intLeft = (intHorizontal - menu_width)/2 
intTop = (intVertical - menu_height)/2 
window.resizeTo menu_width,menu_height 
window.moveTo intLeft, intTop
strXMLFile = FindCurrentDir & "footballclubs.xml"		
Call PopulateDropdownLists
End Sub
Function FindCurrentDir
Dim objShell : Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
FindCurrentDir = Left(document.location.pathname,InStrRev(document.location.pathname,"\"))
End Function
Sub PopulateDropdownLists
Dim objOption
Dim strQuery, colItem, objItem
Const intForReading = 1
Dim xmlDoc : Set xmlDoc = CreateObject( "Microsoft.XMLDOM" )
xmlDoc.Async = False
If xmlDoc.Load(strXMLFile) Then
'populate club names
Set objOption = Document.createElement("OPTION")
objOption.Text = "Select Club"
objOption.value = "Select Club"
ClubSelector.add(objOption)
strQuery = "/PREMIERLEAGUEFOOTBALLCLUBS/FOOTBALLCLUBS/FOOTBALLCLUB/FOOTBALLCLUBNAME"	
Set colItem = xmlDoc.selectNodes(strQuery)
For Each objItem in colItem	
Set objOption = Document.createElement("OPTION")
objOption.Text = objItem.text
objOption.value = objItem.text
ClubSelector.add(objOption)		
Next
Set objOption = Document.createElement("OPTION")
objOption.Text = "Select Player"
objOption.value = "Select Player"
PlayerSelector.add(objOption)	
End If
Set xmlDoc = Nothing
End Sub
Sub populateClubs()
Dim footballclubname : footballclubname = ClubSelector.options(ClubSelector.SelectedIndex).value
Dim objOption
For Each objOption in PlayerSelector.Options
objOption.RemoveNode
Next 	
Dim xmlDoc : Set xmlDoc = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xmlDoc.Async = False
Set objOption = Document.createElement("OPTION")
objOption.Text = "Select Player"
objOption.value = "Select Player"
PlayerSelector.add(objOption)
If xmlDoc.Load(strXMLFile) Then
dim strQuery : strQuery = "/PREMIERLEAGUEFOOTBALLCLUBS/FOOTBALLCLUBS/FOOTBALLCLUB [ FOOTBALLCLUBNAME = '" & footballclubname & "' ] /PLAYERS/PLAYER/PLAYERNAME"
dim colItem : Set colItem = xmlDoc.selectNodes(strQuery)
dim objItem
For Each objItem in colItem
Set objOption = Document.createElement("OPTION")
objOption.Text = objItem.text
objOption.value = objItem.text
PlayerSelector.add(objOption)	
Next
End If
Set xmlDoc = Nothing		
End Sub
Function getXMLValues(footballclubname,tag)
Dim xmlDoc : Set xmlDoc = CreateObject( "Microsoft.XMLDOM" )
xmlDoc.Async = False
If xmlDoc.Load(strXMLFile) Then
dim strQuery : strQuery = "/PREMIERLEAGUEFOOTBALLCLUBS/FOOTBALLCLUBS/FOOTBALLCLUB [ FOOTBALLCLUBNAME = '" & footballclubname & "' ] /" & tag & ""
dim colItem : Set colItem = xmlDoc.selectNodes(strQuery)
dim objItem
For Each objItem in colItem
getXMLValues = objItem.text
Next
End If
Set xmlDoc = Nothing	
End Function
Sub displayStadium
Dim footballclubname : footballclubname = ClubSelector.options(ClubSelector.SelectedIndex).value	
Dim stadiumname : stadiumname = getXMLValues(footballclubname,"FOOTBALLCLUBSTADIUM")	
MsgBox stadiumname
End Sub
</script>
<body scroll="no" onload="InitialWindow" style="text-align:center;font-family:Arial;font-size:12px;">
<br /><br />
<select size="1" id="ClubSelector" onChange="populateClubs()"></select><br /><br />
<select size="1" id="PlayerSelector"></select><br /><br />
<input type="button" value="Display Stadium" name="printSelection"  onClick="displayStadium()" />
</div>
</body>
</html>

 

Using VBScript, CAML queries and SOAP to Read from a Sharepoint List

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We use a Sharepoint list to track various information. The toolsets that we create should ideally read from these lists, so that every team member shares the same information and can see real-time data. To do this, we used VBScript (we made a HTA actually…).

It uses a SOAP request to ‘ask’ for information from Sharepoint. Part of this request uses a CAML query to specify exactly what we’re after.

Option Explicit
Dim url, list, viewFields, request, xmlDoc, elements, colItem, objItem, queryNode, clientname, resultsArray, xmlArray(), strItem, spclientname
Set xmlDoc = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument.6.0")
xmlDoc.async = False
url = "http://xxxx/_vti_bin/Lists.asmx"
'search in client list for 'Multi Client', where LinkTitle equals 'Multi Client', and bring me back the target platform
resultsArray = getResults("331609D1-793D-4075-BC88-570956C6D729","LinkTitle","Multi Client","ows_Target_x0020_Platform")
'do what we want with the clients here
For Each strItem in resultsArray
Wscript.Echo strItem
Next
Function getResults(splist, spwhere, spvalue, spreturnattribute)	
request = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>" & _
"<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xmlns:xsd='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema' xmlns:soap='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'>" & _
"  <soap:Body>" & _
"    <GetListItems xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/'>" & _
"      <listName>" & splist & "</listName>" + _
"      <query><Query xmlns=''>" & _
"      <Where>" & _
"      <Eq>" & _
"      <FieldRef Name='" & spwhere & "'/>" & _
"      <Value Type='Text'>" & spvalue & "</Value>" & _
"      </Eq>" & _
"      </Where>" & _
"      </Query>" & _
"      </query>" & _
"    </GetListItems>" & _
"  </soap:Body>" & _
"</soap:Envelope>"
'post it up and look at the response
with CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
.open "Get", url, False, null, null
.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "text/xml; charset=utf-8"
.setRequestHeader "SOAPAction","http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/GetListItems"
.send request
xmlDoc.setProperty "SelectionLanguage", "XPath"
xmlDoc.async = false
xmlDoc.validateOnParse = false
xmlDoc.resolveExternals = false
xmlDoc.setProperty "SelectionNamespaces", "xmlns:s='uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3-00AA00C14882' xmlns:soap='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/' xmlns:namespace='http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/' xmlns:rs='urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset' xmlns:z='#RowsetSchema'"
xmlDoc.loadXML(.responseText)
'dim strQuery : strQuery = "//soap:Envelope/soap:Body/namespace:GetListItemsResponse/namespace:GetListItemsResult/namespace:listitems/rs:data/z:row"
dim strQuery : strQuery = ".//z:row"
Set colItem = xmlDoc.selectNodes(strQuery)
Dim objItemCount : objItemCount = 0
'clear array
ReDim xmlArray(objItemCount)
'wscript.echo "No of Items: " & colItem.Length
For Each objItem in colItem		
ReDim Preserve xmlArray(objItemCount)
xmlArray(objItemCount) = objItem.getAttribute(spreturnattribute)			
objItemCount = objItemCount + 1
Next
Set colItem = Nothing
'we could use this if we didnt filter it during the request	
'Set queryNode = xmlDoc.selectSingleNode(".//z:row[@ows_LinkTitle = '" & clientname & "']")
'wscript.echo queryNode.getAttribute("ows_Target_x0020_Platform")
'Set queryNode = Nothing
Set xmlDoc = Nothing
getResults = xmlArray	
end with
End Function

**UPDATE**

The example above pulls back ALL fields from the list. We may want to refine this to only pull back specific fields by adding the following to our SOAP request:

    " 	   <viewFields><ViewFields><FieldRef Name='COMPANYNAME_x0020_Property' /><FieldRef Name='USERNAME_x0020_Property' /></ViewFields></viewFields>" + _
"    <queryOptions>" + _
" 	       <QueryOptions>" + _
" 	           <IncludeMandatoryColumns>FALSE</IncludeMandatoryColumns>" + _
" 	           <ViewFieldsOnly>TRUE</ViewFieldsOnly>" + _
" 	       </QueryOptions>" + _
" 	   </queryOptions>" + _

The first viewFields tag above should be at the same level as the <query> tag in the example above. In other words, you can paste this code directly above the <query> line in the SOAP request.