MSXML2.DOMDocument load function fails in VBA - vba

Question

I've been struggling with the below issue for a while now and couldn't find the solution yet.
There is an iShare page with an XML file that I want to download using VBA code, then later process the XML file and save into MS Access database.
I've been using the below code for about 4 years now, it worked perfectly without any issues. But suddenly it stopped working this week.
Any ideas why?
the code:
Private Function GetRequests() As Boolean
On Error GoTo ErrHandler
Dim oDoc As MSXML2.DOMDocument
Dim Url As String
Dim sFileName As String
Set oDoc = New MSXML2.DOMDocument
oDoc.async = False
Url = cUrlDatabase & "/" & cApplicationName & "/In/" & cReqXmlFile
UpdateStatus "Loading " & cReqXmlFile
If Not oDoc.Load(Url) Then
c_sLastError = "Could not load XML " & Url
GoTo EndProc
End If
sFileName = sPath & "\Data\requests.xml"
oDoc.Save sFileName
GetRequests = True
End Function
The code fails at the oDoc.Load(Url) part, it comes back false.

Answer 1

Here's an example of how to gather error details:
Dim xDoc As MSXML.DOMDocument
Set xDoc = New MSXML.DOMDocument
If xDoc.Load("C:\My Documents\cds.xml") Then
' The document loaded successfully.
' Now do something intersting.
Else
' The document failed to load.
Dim strErrText As String
Dim xPE As MSXML.IXMLDOMParseError
' Obtain the ParseError object
Set xPE = xDoc.parseError
With xPE
strErrText = "Your XML Document failed to load" & _
"due the following error." & vbCrLf & _
"Error #: " & .errorCode & ": " & xPE.reason & _
"Line #: " & .Line & vbCrLf & _
"Line Position: " & .linepos & vbCrLf & _
"Position In File: " & .filepos & vbCrLf & _
"Source Text: " & .srcText & vbCrLf & _
"Document URL: " & .url
End With
MsgBox strErrText, vbExclamation End If
Set xPE = Nothing
End If
Example taken from here.

Answer 2

For other people finding this post:
The xml parser by now has implemented different error types (see here).
You would have to use the following code
Set objXML = CreateObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument.6.0")
ObjXML.async=true
objXML.load "/path/to/xml"
If objXML.parseError.errorCode <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Error was " + objXML.parseError.reason
End If
This should help you debug your .xml file.

Answer 3

For anyone else struggling with this, I found this error to be caused by text encoded in a format which could not be parsed in VBA (some weird E symbol). The objXML was nothing after the .load. I'm sure there are many possible causes, but I'll share what I found in case this helps someone. Thanks to the guys above for the error handling routines.