Develop Reference

Getting XML node using XPath returns null

I am trying to get a node in a simple XML, but no matter what I try I always get null.
I am guessing that the issue is the namespace.
I am simply trying to get the value of the ID element, 331377697.
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.Load("E:\\0323.xml");
XmlNamespaceManager manager = new XmlNamespaceManager(xmlDoc.NameTable);
manager.AddNamespace("cac", "http://xxxxxx Some URL XXXX");
manager.AddNamespace("cbc", "http://xxxxxx Some URL XXXX");
string query = "/StandardBusinessDocument/Invoice/cbc:ID";
XmlNode xmlNode = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode(query, manager);
The XML:
<StandardBusinessDocument xmlns="http://www.unece.org/cefact/namespaces/StandardBusinessDocumentHeader">
<StandardBusinessDocumentHeader>
...
</StandardBusinessDocumentHeader>
<Invoice xmlns="urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:Invoice-2" xmlns:cac="urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CommonAggregateComponents-2" xmlns:cbc="urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CommonBasicComponents-2" xmlns:ccts="urn:un:unece:uncefact:documentation:2"
...
</Invoice>
<cbc:UBLVersionID>2.1</cbc:UBLVersionID>
<cbc:CustomizationID>1234</cbc:CustomizationID>
<cbc:ProfileID>1234564</cbc:ProfileID>
<cbc:ID>331377697</cbc:ID>
<cbc:IssueDate>2017-03-23</cbc:IssueDate>
<cbc:InvoiceTypeCode listID="UNCL1001">380</cbc:InvoiceTypeCode>
<cbc:DocumentCurrencyCode listID="ISO4217">NOK</cbc:DocumentCurrencyCode>
<cac:OrderReference>
<cbc:ID>146136</cbc:ID>
</cac:OrderReference>
...

You must specify the exact namespaces.
Also you have to specify namespace prefixes for all elements in the XPath.
manager.AddNamespace("nsDoc", "http://www.unece.org/cefact/namespaces/StandardBusinessDocumentHeader");
manager.AddNamespace("nsInvoice", "urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:Invoice-2");
manager.AddNamespace("cbc", "urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CommonBasicComponents-2");
string query = "/nsDoc:StandardBusinessDocument/nsInvoice:Invoice/cbc:ID";
It's supposed to work.

Can't find a certain node in XML

My problem is that I can't seem to get a list of nodes I need. I have tried multiple solutions and it doesn't seem to work. This is a part of my xml file:
<findItemsByCategoryResponse xmlns="http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services">
<ack>Success</ack>
<version>1.13.0</version>
<timestamp>2016-08-23T07:33:22.497Z</timestamp>
<searchResult count="100">
<item>
<itemId>152210133431</itemId>
<title>...</title>
<globalId>EBAY-GB</globalId>
<primaryCategory>
<categoryId>218</categoryId>
<categoryName>Magic the Gathering</categoryName>
</primaryCategory>
<galleryURL>
http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/m/meIDrVqhmbpQMYCxzeUvR9Q/140.jpg
</galleryURL>
<viewItemURL>
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MTG-See-Unwritten-Khans-Tarkir-MYTHIC-MINT-/152210133431
</viewItemURL>
<paymentMethod>PayPal</paymentMethod>
<autoPay>false</autoPay>
<location>London,United Kingdom</location>
<country>GB</country>
<shippingInfo>
<shippingServiceCost currencyId="GBP">1.1</shippingServiceCost>
<shippingType>Flat</shippingType>
<shipToLocations>GB</shipToLocations>
</shippingInfo>
<sellingStatus>
<currentPrice currencyId="GBP">0.5</currentPrice>
<convertedCurrentPrice currencyId="GBP">0.5</convertedCurrentPrice>
<bidCount>0</bidCount>
<sellingState>Active</sellingState>
<timeLeft>P0DT0H19M12S</timeLeft>
</sellingStatus>
<listingInfo>
<bestOfferEnabled>false</bestOfferEnabled>
<buyItNowAvailable>false</buyItNowAvailable>
<startTime>2016-08-18T07:52:34.000Z</startTime>
<endTime>2016-08-23T07:52:34.000Z</endTime>
<listingType>Auction</listingType>
<gift>false</gift>
</listingInfo>
<condition>
<conditionId>1000</conditionId>
<conditionDisplayName>New</conditionDisplayName>
</condition>
<isMultiVariationListing>false</isMultiVariationListing>
<topRatedListing>false</topRatedListing>
</item>
</searchResult>
<paginationOutput>...</paginationOutput>
<itemSearchURL>...</itemSearchURL>
</findItemsByCategoryResponse>
Normally there are 100 item nodes in this xml file, I just shorted the file. I tried to get the ''item'' nodes and everything inside in a XmlNodeList, but when I debug it says it contains 0 items. After this I want to retrieve some data, as you can see in the code. Note: I tried a lot of xpath values!
Here is the code I used:
XmlDocument xmlText = new XmlDocument();
xmlText.Load(basicUrl);
XmlElement root = xmlText.DocumentElement;
XmlNodeList xnList = root.SelectNodes("//item");
foreach(XmlNode item in xnList)
{
string title = item["title"].InnerText;
Console.WriteLine(title);
}

XPath Expressions are always namespace aware (if the Element has a Namespace then the XPath must reference it by namespace). Also, in XPath expressions, the 'default' namespace is always in the URI "". In your case you should do something like this :
XmlDocument xmlText = new XmlDocument();
xmlText.Load(yourXml);
XmlElement root = xmlText.DocumentElement;
XmlNamespaceManager nsmgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(xmlText.NameTable);
nsmgr.AddNamespace("t", "http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services");
XmlNodeList xnList = xmlText.SelectNodes("//t:item", nsmgr);
foreach (XmlNode item in xnList)
{
string title = item["title"].InnerText;
Console.WriteLine(title);
}
SelectNodes with namespace :
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/4bektfx9(v=vs.110).aspx

Extracting XML Child Elements Where the Parents are in a Defaulted Namespace

I have the below XML and I've been trying to extract the FirstName, LastName and OtherName for a while now I'm running into all sort of problems.
<OmdCds xmlns="cds"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:cdsd="cds_dt"
xsi:schemaLocation="cds ontariomd_cds.xsd">
<PatientRecord>
<Demographics>
<Names>
<cdsd:LegalName namePurpose="L">
<cdsd:FirstName>
<cdsd:Part>SARAH</cdsd:Part>
<cdsd:PartType>GIV</cdsd:PartType>
<cdsd:PartQualifier>BR</cdsd:PartQualifier>
</cdsd:FirstName>
<cdsd:LastName>
<cdsd:Part>GOMEZ</cdsd:Part>
<cdsd:PartType>FAMC</cdsd:PartType>
<cdsd:PartQualifier>BR</cdsd:PartQualifier>
</cdsd:LastName>
<cdsd:OtherName>
<cdsd:Part>GABRIELA</cdsd:Part>
<cdsd:PartType>GIV</cdsd:PartType>
<cdsd:PartQualifier>BR</PartQualifier>
I currently trying to extract with the below c# code but still can't extract the above data. I'm getting a nullreferenceexception.
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load(folder + "\\" + o.ToString());
XmlNamespaceManager namespaceManager = new XmlNamespaceManager(doc.NameTable);
namespaceManager.AddNamespace("cdsd", "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance");
XmlNode firstName = doc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("/PatientRecord/Demographics/Names/cdsd:LegalName/cdsd:FirstName/cdsd:Part", namespaceManager);
string fName = firstName.InnerText;
MessageBox.Show(fName);
I can see in the local watch item under doc.DocumentElement, all the InnerXML and InnerText. The InnerXML look something like this...
<PatientRecord xmlns=\"cds\"><Demographics><Names><cdsd:LegalName namePurpose=\"L\" xmlns:cdsd=\"cds_dt\"><cdsd:FirstName><cdsd:Part>SARAH</cdsd:Part><cdsd:PartType>GIV</cdsd:PartType><cdsd:PartQualifier>BR</cdsd:PartQualifier></cdsd:FirstName>

You have 3 namespace definitions in the document:
cds - as a default namespace
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance- with the xsi prefix
cds_dt - with the cdsd prefix
I am wondering that you don't get an error message, because cds and cds_dt are no URIs and namspaces need to be URIs.
If you try to understand an element name you need to replaces the prefix with the actual namespace.
<PatientRecord> reads as {cds}:PatientRecord
<cdsd:LegalName> reads as {cds_dt}:LegalName
Now in XPath 1.0 the same happens with registered namespaces. But XPath does not have a default namespace. So elements without one are not expanded with a default namespace.
You need to register namespace prefixes on the namespace manager. The prefix does not need to be the same as in the document.
namespaceManager.AddNamespace("cdsd", "cds_dt");
namespaceManager.AddNamespace("cds", "cds");
Now you can use the registered namespaces in XPath:
doc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode(
"cds:PatientRecord/cds:Demographics/cds:Names/cdsd:LegalName/cdsd:FirstName/cdsd:Part",
namespaceManager
);
If the first character of an XPath expression is a slash the expression is relative to the document, otherwise to the current context node. You call SelectSingleNode() on the doc.DocumentElement - the OmdCds element node. PatientRecord is a child node, so you can start with it or use . for the current context node.

PatientRecord, Demographics and Names are in the cds namespace. This is because of the default namespace declaration on the OmdCds element (xmlns="cds"). The others are in the cdsd namespace, not xsi. You'll have to add them and use them in the XPATH:
namespaceManager.AddNamespace("cdsd", "cdsd");
namespaceManager.AddNamespace("cds", "cds");
XmlNode firstName = doc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode(
"/cds:PatientRecord/cds:Demographics/cds:Names/cdsd:LegalName/cdsd:FirstName/cdsd:Part",
namespaceManager);
BTW, you're getting a NullReferenceException because you're making the false assumption that your query will always return a node. You are now seeing what happens when it does not return a node. Always check for null whenever it's possible that a query returns no value.

Instead XmlDocument class you can use Linq to XML, is easy. You need using the System.Xml.Linq namspace, for example:
XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load("path");
IEnumerable<XElement> nodes = (from p in xdoc.Descendants()
where p.Name.LocalName == "FirstName"
select p).Elements();
foreach (XElement nodeFirstName in nodes)
{
foreach (XElement parts in nodeFirstName.Elements())
{
string strExtracted = parts.Name.LocalName + " " + parts.Value;
}
}
The LocalName property is used beacuse elements have a prefix "cdsd"

How to use XmlNamespaceManager and SelectSingleNode correctly?

I need to get node value from xml. The xml has namespace.
I have the following code
string xml =
"<file xmlns=\"SFAKT\" xmlns:xs=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\" xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\">" +
"<document>test</document>" +
"</file>";
XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
xmlDocument.LoadXml(xml);
XmlNamespaceManager ns = new XmlNamespaceManager(xmlDocument.NameTable);
ns.AddNamespace("sf", "SFAKT");
XmlNode node = xmlDocument.SelectSingleNode("sf:file/document");
But node = null
Can you tell me where is the error in my code?

You need to use the overloaded SelectSingleNode method and pass in the XmlNamespaceManager. Also, you need the sf prefix for the document node.
Pull the node out like this:
XmlNode node = xmlDocument.SelectSingleNode("sf:file/sf:document", ns);

C# Xml Value always getting null

I have the following Xml in my Resources.xmltest:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Response xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://DFISofft.com/SmartPayments/">
<Result>0</Result>
<Message>Pending</Message>
<PNRef>222131</PNRef>
<ExtData>InvNum=123</ExtData>
</Response>
I've tried several ways to get the values, Result,Message,PNRef,ExtData, out of it and I've had no luck. I always get a null value for the NodePath so it never goes into the loop:
var XmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
XmlDoc.LoadXml(Resources.xmltest);
XmlElement NodePath = (XmlElement) XmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("/Response");
while (NodePath != null)
{
foreach (XmlNode Xml_Node in NodePath)
{
Console.WriteLine(Xml_Node.Name + " " + Xml_Node.InnerText);
}
}
I've tried this:
XmlNode node3 = XmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("PNRef");
Console.WriteLine(node3.Value);
Console.WriteLine(XmlDoc.InnerXml);
var tst = XmlDoc.GetElementsByTagName("PNRef");
Console.WriteLine(tst);
And this:
NodePath = (XmlElement) XmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("/Response");
if (NodePath != null)
{
foreach (XmlNode node in NodePath)
{
Console.WriteLine("NodeName: " + Xml_NodeX.Name);
Console.WriteLine("NodeValue: " + node.InnerText);
}
}
Apparently, I'm not getting the xml read/write. I've done it with DataSets but they do all the work for you.
Can someone point me in the right direction? I've been at this for longer than I should have been already.
Thank you!

Your XML has a XML namespace and you're not paying any attention to it:
<Response xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns="http://DFISofft.com/SmartPayments/">
******************************************
When selecting from this XML, you need to use that XML namespace!
You're not taking into account the XML namespace (xmlns="http://nts-de-osm1-pxc/webservices/") on the document!
Try this:
var XmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
// setup the XML namespace manager
XmlNamespaceManager mgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(XmlDoc.NameTable);
// add the relevant namespaces to the XML namespace manager
mgr.AddNamespace("ns", "http://DFISofft.com/SmartPayments/");
XmlDoc.LoadXml(Resources.xmltest);
// **USE** the XML anemspace in your XPath !!
XmlElement NodePath = (XmlElement) XmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("/ns:Response");
while (NodePath != null)
{
foreach (XmlNode Xml_Node in NodePath)
{
Console.WriteLine(Xml_Node.Name + " " + Xml_Node.InnerText);
}
}

The problem is your XPath query, which doesn't specify a namespace - despite the fact that your document only has a Response element in the "http://DFISofft.com/SmartPayments/" namespace. Ditto the PNRef elements.
Personally I'd use LINQ to XML if I actually wanted to use namespaces if at all possible. For example:
XNamespace ns = "http://DFISofft.com/SmartPayments/";
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(filename);
foreach (var element in doc.Descendants(ns + "PNRef"))
{
// Use element here
}
As you can see, LINQ to XML makes it really easy to use namespaces - but of course it requires .NET 3.5 or higher. If I had to use .NET 2.0, I'd either use XmlNamespaceManager or iterate manually and check local names instead of using XPath.

That is because the node isn't called response; you need to take the namespace into account:
var XmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
var nsmgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(XmlDoc.NameTable);
nsmgr.AddNamespace("x", "http://DFISofft.com/SmartPayments/");
XmlDoc.LoadXml(yourXml);
XmlElement NodePath = (XmlElement)XmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("/x:Response", nsmgr);

For future reference...
Bubba Soft
This site has a great free tool for building XPath Expressions (XPath Builder).

It's because you are using the overload of SelectSingleNode that assumes an empty namespace. Since you have a default namespace you will need to use the version that takes an XmlNamespaceManager. See this article for more info.
from the docs:
If the XPath expression does not include a prefix, it is assumed that the namespace URI is the empty namespace. If your XML includes a default namespace, you must still add a prefix and namespace URI to the XmlNamespaceManager; otherwise, you will not get a node selected. For more information, see Select Nodes Using XPath Navigation.