Error: VBScript runtime (0x800A01A8) Object required: '[object]'

[Carolyn Speakman]

Hi,

I'm trying to amend an intranet .asp page but keep getting this error. The error only occurs when I pull the WHOLE intranet off the server and try to run it locally. The error isn't there when the page is run off the intranet server.

I'm using IIS 5, I.E. 6 and WinXP Pro.

Here's the code it doesn't like:

<%
cookieUsrUID = 0
'response.cookies("cookiePassCode") = 0
cookieUsrUID = request.cookies("cookieUsrUID")

' Get the URL for the RSS file first from the form, then from the Cookie RSS_URL = Request.Form("headlineURL") If RSS_URL = "" Then RSS_URL = Request.Cookies( "headlineURL" ) Else Response.Cookies( "headlineURL" ) = RSS_URL Response.Cookies( "headlineURL" ).Expires = "Dec 31, 2010" End If If RSS_URL = "" Then ' If it has not been defined, default it to the BBC front page RSS_URL = "http://news.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/front_page/rss091.xml" Response.Cookies( "headlineURL" ) = RSS_URL Response.Cookies( "headlineURL" ).Expires = "Dec 31, 2010" End If

%>

<!-- BLAH BLAH BLAH -->

<%
Set rssData = Server.CreateObject("MSXML2.DomDocument.4.0") rssData.async = False rssData.Load( RSS_URL ) If rssData.parseError.errorCode 0 Then response.write reason End If Set rssHeader = rssData.getElementsByTagName("channel")

<!-- DOESN'T LIKE THIS LINE -->
lastUpdated = rssHeader.item(0).childNodes(4).text
<!-- ********************** -->

Set rssContent = rssData.getElementsByTagName("item")
rssRows = rssContent.length
%>

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I've been sat here for days!!

Thanks,
Carolyn

 

[Keith M. Corbett]

<!-- DOESN'T LIKE THIS LINE -->
lastUpdated = rssHeader.item(0).childNodes(4).text
<!-- ********************** -->

The VBScript runtime error "Object required" is roughly equivalent to an invalid pointer exception in other languages.

The code assumes that rssHeader.item(0) returns a valid object (let's call it X), and ditto for X.childNodes(4). Either of these method calls could "fail" and return the null value. OTOH I forget how VBScript represents the null value; you should be able to glean this info from any VBScript reference.

Add some error checking, and/or take a look at the data, ie., experimental values for the channel element and its sub-elements. See whether these methods are returning valid objects, and if not, why not. The documentation for MSXML DOM may be helpful in this regard.

Clearly your test runs on the server and local machine are getting data that is structured differently. Perhaps this clue in and of itself will point to a solution.

Hope this helps.

/kmc