I was going to demonstrate how to localize roll call votes so that only representatives from your state and their votes were displayed for any given roll call vote.
Which would enable libraries or local newsrooms, whose users/readers have little interest in how obscure representatives from other states voted, to pare down the roll call vote list to those that really matter, your state’s representatives.
But remembering that I promised to clean up the listings in yesterday’s post that read:
{string(doc(“http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2015/roll705.xml”)//rollcall-num)}
and kept repeating (doc(“http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2015/roll705.xml”).
My thought was to replace that string with a variable declared by a let clause and then substituting that variable for that string.
To save you from the same mistake, combining a let clause with direct element constructors returns an error saying, in this case:
Left operand of ‘>’ needs parentheses
Not a terribly helpful error message.
I have found examples of using a let clause within a direct element constructor that would have defeated the rationale for declaring the variable to begin with.
Tomorrow I hope to post today’s content, which will enable you to display data relevant to local voters, news reporters, for any arbitrary roll call vote in Congress.
Mark today’s adventure as a mistake to avoid. 😉