GeneralException on insertContentControl() - ms-word

Question

I am having issues with insertContentControl() for some (but not most) of the ranges returned by search().
Essentially, I search for various terms and then for each find, I attempt to create a content control. This mostly work, however every so often I get a GeneralException that looks like this:
{code: "GeneralException", message: "Sorry, something went wrong. Check the OfficeExtension.Error.debugInfo for more information. ", errorLocation: "Range.insertContentControl", statement: "var insertContentControl=v.insertContentControl();", toString: ƒ, …}
code: "GeneralException"
errorLocation: "Range.insertContentControl"
fullStatements: (7) ["var v=context.root._getObjectByReferenceId("{4a645…31b06a1e8cb}{205}") /* originally getItem(28) */;", "var insertContentControl=v.insertContentControl();", "// Instantiate {insertContentControl}", "insertContentControl.title="TypeOne";", "insertContentControl.color="yellow", "insertContentControl.tag="someTag";", "insertContentControl.appearance="Tags";"]
message: "Sorry, something went wrong. Check the OfficeExtension.Error.debugInfo for more information. "
statement: "var insertContentControl=v.insertContentControl();"
surroundingStatements: Array(9)
0: "var v=context.root._getObjectByReferenceId("{4a64573e-3807-4278-a22d-131b06a1e8cb}{205}") /* originally getItem(...) */;"
1: "// >>>>>"
2: "var insertContentControl=v.insertContentControl();"
3: "// <<<<<"
4: "// Instantiate {insertContentControl}"
5: "insertContentControl.title=...;"
6: "insertContentControl.color=...;"
7: "insertContentControl.tag=...;"
8: "insertContentControl.appearance=...;"
lastIndex: (...)
lastItem: (...)
length: 9
Here is a simplified version of my code:
//This object may contain thousands of terms across multiple entity types
let entities = {
EntityType1:{
Term1: [],
Term2: []
}
}
await Word.run(async (context) => {
// search for terms
for(let entityKey in entities) {
let terms = entities[entityKey]
for(let termKey in terms){
let searchResults = context.document.body.search(termKey, {matchWholeWord:true, matchCase: true});
searchResults.load(["text", "parentContentControlOrNullObject"]);
_.extend(terms[termKey], ({"searchHits": searchResults}))
}
}
await context.sync()
//add content controls for each found term
for(let entityKey in entities) {
let terms = entities[entityKey]
for(let termKey in terms){
let term = terms[termKey];
let searchHits = term.searchHits.items;
for (const hit of searchHits) {
//this always works
//hit.font.highlightColor = EntityColors[entityKey]
try {
let cc:Word.ContentControl = hit.parentContentControlOrNullObject
if(cc.isNullObject || cc.tag != appId){
cc = hit.insertContentControl()
}
cc.title = entityKey
cc.color = "yellow"
cc.tag = "someTag"
cc.appearance = "Tags"
//NB. this is here only for debugging - it really slows everything down
await context.sync()
} catch (error) {
if (error instanceof OfficeExtension.Error) {
console.log(error.debugInfo)
console.log(error.innerError)
}
}
}
}
}
await context.sync()
})
I am mainly testing on Word Online but Word desktop seems to display the same issue.
I just can't find what's causing this. What else can I do to find the root of the problem?

Answer 1

As Cindy suggested, I was able to modify your script to stop at the fist exception and find out what's going on. (Good Tip Cindy!).
And this image shows immediately what's the issue (you are trying to insert a CC in the red range, who overlaps with an existing CC, that's an invalid operation):
Use the range.compareLocationWith API to determine you are in a situation like this.