[CS3/CS4 JS] How can you get the associatedXMLElement of a merged cell in a table?

Question

Hi!
Inserting a table, and autotagging it, I get a table with a number of cell elements in the XML Structure.
Selecting an item in the table, I can find the associated XML by the following line of code:
app.selection[0].associatedXMLElement
My problems begin when cells are merged. Then the associatedXMLElement for the cell returns null.
How can I find the associatedXMLElement for a merged cell?
Using the getElements makes no difference.
app.selection[0].getElements()[0].associatedXMLElement
(returns null)
In the XML structure I can see that the merged cell is still associated to an XML Element, which becomes underlined and also referrs back to the cell, selecting it when double clicking the XML Element link in the structure.
Is there no way to get to the xml element of a merged cell?
I have tested in CS3 and CS4 as well, and they act in the same way.
I also found a similar, unanswered, question from Anne-Laure Jallon in the "With CS3, some things have changed" ( http://forums.adobe.com/message/1105813#1105813 ):
Hello,
I'm working with VBscript.
Is there a difference between cell.associatedXmlElement in CS2 and CS3?
All my cells in CS2 had an associatedXmlElement.
In CS3, my table has an associatedXmlElement, but all its cells don't (The value is Nothing)
Is this a bug? Is it linked with XML evolution?   Thanks Anne Laure
Adding some more info:
I made a test, by selecting the XMLElement in the structure, and from that object finding the cell, and finding back to the assiciatedXMLElement:
app.selection[0].getElements()[0].cells[0].associatedXMLElement
Result: [object XMLElement]
So that kind of "chain" works.
But with the merged cell as only reference, I can't find its associatedXMLElement. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Best regards,
Andreas Jansson
Message was edited by: Andreas Jansson

Answer 1

In my opinion, locate a cell according to his content is not so effortable. What happens if contents of more than two cells are equals?
I take xml elements of associated xml element of table and put them into an array.
This array contains associated xml elements of every cell ordered by cell positions into table.
Now, locate associated xml element of a cell based on its array position (index) is more reliable:
var myCell_cell = app.selection[0];
var myElement = myCell.associateXMLElement
if (!myElement || !myElement.isValid)  {
     var table =  myCell.parent;
     var xml_tab = table.associatedXMLElement;
     var xml_cells_arr = xml_tab.xmlElements.everyItem().getElements();
     var idx = myCell.index;
     myElement = xml_cells_arr[idx];
Alex ;-)