Thanks  I think you've put me on the right track.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/0900/xml/

According the technical documenation axes are supported from MSXML3

var xmldoc = Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument.3.0");
 xmldoc.async=false;
 xmldoc.load(file);
 xmldoc.setProperty( "SelectionLanguage", "XPath")

***************************

The problem now is that setProperty  now generates the following error

Reference to undeclared namespace prefix: 'RDF'.

Any ideas what this is now complaining about?

......is it the top most node (as shown below)   or the XML directive?

.... or can anyone point me at a simple example XPath  ancestor example

which EXCLUDES any use of XSD or XSLT ?






"Chris Barber" <chris@b...> wrote in message
news:Oao#hRAeEHA.2376@t......
> Have you set:
>
> pobjXMLDOC.setAttribute "SelectionLanguage", "XPath"
>
> on the document before trying the selectNodes()?
>
> I believe that MSXML4 defaults to the XPattern syntax making the XPath
your are using invalid
> (doesn't support axes).
>
> Chris.
>
> "rvj" <md@r...> wrote in message
news:Orwjo9$dEHA.4048@T......
> Corrected Version :
>
> I want to select nodes from an XML file (RDF) but I dont understand the
> syntax
> for including the containing elements into the node set
>
> For example, if I use
>
>        var nodes =
xmldoc.selectNodes("//RDF:Description[@role:area='US']");
>
>  I get valid results for the US apart from the fact I havent generated any
> containing elements especially the root node so I assume I need something
> like
>
>       var nodes =
>
xmldoc.selectNodes("//RDF:Description[@role:area='US']/ancestor-or-self::*")
> ;
>
> or
>
>        var nodes =
>
xmldoc.selectNodes("//ancestor-or-self::RDF:Description[@role:area='US']");
>
> and then simply dump the xml using
>
>     for (i=0;i<nodes.length;i++ )
>      {
>          Response.write(nodes.nextNode().xml)
>      }
>
> but all my attempts generate token errors in my asp page
>
> Expected token 'eof' found ':'.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> ********
> input file
> ********
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
>
> <RDF:RDF xmlns:RDF="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
>          xmlns:role="http://www.rolemodels.net/rdf#">
>   <RDF:Seq about="search:providers">
>     <RDF:li>
>        <RDF:Description  role:area="US" role:body="Excute" />
>        <RDF:Description  role:area="US"  role:body="Yahoo Corp"  />
>        <RDF:Description  role:area="UK"  role:body="Yahoo Limited"    />
>     </RDF:li>
>   </RDF:Seq>
> </RDF:RDF>
>
> ************
> required output
> *************
>
> <RDF:RDF xmlns:RDF="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
>          xmlns:role="http://www.rolemodels.net/rdf#">
>   <RDF:Seq about="search:providers">
>     <RDF:li>
>        <RDF:Description  role:area="US" role:body="Excute" />
>        <RDF:Description  role:area="US"  role:body="Yahoo Corp"  />
>      </RDF:li>
>   </RDF:Seq>
> </RDF:RDF>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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