Develop Reference

Create start XML manually

I want to create XML file so i am using this way:
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings
{
Indent = true,
Encoding = Encoding.Unicode
};
string xmlPath = #"c:\file.xml";
XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(xmlPath, settings);
xmlWriter.WriteStartDocument(false);
Result:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" standalone="no"?>
<cp>
<user>NA</user>
<password>NA</password>
</cu>
But i want this start XML will be Upper case:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" standalone="no"?>
So i try to create this start manually:
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings
{
Indent = true,
Encoding = Encoding.Unicode
};
string xmlPath = #"c:\file.xml";
XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(xmlPath, settings);
xmlWriter.WriteRaw("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-16\" standalone=\"no\"?>\r\n");
But the result was that i received the start twice:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" standalone="no"?>

You can add the following line before you start writing the xml.
That is,
settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;
string xmlPath = #"c:\file.xml";
XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(xmlPath, settings);
xmlWriter.WriteRaw("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-16\" standalone=\"no\"?>\r\n");
This way your xml will be created not with the default declaration, but with the one that you are adding exclusively.

XML serialize - remove first default tag [duplicate]

I've written some .net code to serialize an object using the XMLSerializer class.
public static string serialize(object o)
{
Type type = o.GetType();
System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer serializer = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(type);
System.IO.StringWriter writer = new System.IO.StringWriter();
serializer.Serialize(writer, o);
return writer.ToString();
}
The output looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<ArrayOfString xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<string>a</string>
<string>b</string>
<string>c</string>
</ArrayOfString>
That's great, but what I would really like is to get just the root node without the XML doctype declaration at the beginning.
The reason I want to do this is because I would like to use the root element of the XML serialized object as part of another XML document.

XmlWriterSettings has a property to omit the XML declaration (OmitXmlDeclaration):
public static string Serialize(object obj)
{
var builder = new StringBuilder();
var xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());
using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(builder,
new XmlWriterSettings() { OmitXmlDeclaration = true }))
{
xmlSerializer.Serialize(writer, obj);
}
return builder.ToString();
}

Preserve xml formatting using XmlDocument

I am using XmlDocument to work with xml
How do I save my "XmlDocument" with my current formatting?
Current formatting:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<root>
<element></element>
</root>
Code:
XmlDocument testDoc = new XmlDocument();
testDoc.Load(#"C:\Test.xml");
**(do reading/writing using only XmlDocument methods)**
testDoc.Save(#"C:\Test.xml");
There is a similar topic:
XmlDocument class is removing formatting, c#, .NET
The accepted answer is PreserveWhiteSpace = true, which in reality removes all whitespaces instead of preserving them.
Example:
Code:
XmlDocument testDoc = new XmlDocument();
testDoc.Load(#"C:\Test.xml");
testDoc.PreserveWhitespace = true;
testDoc.Save(#"C:\Test.xml");
Result:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><root><element></element></root>

Setting PreserveWhitespace to true works for me - but you've got to do it before loading so that the whitespace doesn't get thrown away at load time:
using System;
using System.Xml;
class Test
{
static void Main()
{
XmlDocument testDoc = new XmlDocument();
testDoc.PreserveWhitespace = true;
testDoc.Load("Test.xml");
testDoc.Save("Output.xml");
}
}
I've just tried that, and the whitespace was preserved.

Umm. I'm seeing whitespace being preserved when using PreserveWhiteSpace=true. Perhaps it was false when you loaded?
var xmlStr = #"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?>
<root>
<element></element>
</root>";
var xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.PreserveWhitespace = true;
xmlDoc.LoadXml(xmlStr);
xmlDoc.Save(Console.Out);
Shows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<root>
<element></element>
</root>

use preservewhitespace before you load. It will keep formatting same
like above
var xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.PreserveWhitespace = true;
xmlDoc.LoadXml(xmlStr);
if you will use it after loading. it will kill white spaces in between

Prevent XmlSerializer from formatting output

When using the default settings with the XmlSerializer it will output the XML as a formated value.
IE: something along these lines.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ArrayOfStock xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Stock>
<ProductCode>12345</ProductCode>
<ProductPrice>10.32</ProductPrice>
</Stock>
<Stock>
<ProductCode>45632</ProductCode>
<ProductPrice>5.43</ProductPrice>
</Stock>
</ArrayOfStock>
How does one prevent any type of formatting on the output? So what I am looking to achieve is this.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><ArrayOfStock xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"><Stock><ProductCode>123456</ProductCode><ProductPrice>10.57</ProductPrice></Stock><Stock><ProductCode>789123</ProductCode><ProductPrice>133.22</ProductPrice></Stock></ArrayOfStock>
EDIT: The full code of my method is
public static String Serialize(Stock stock)
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Stock));
using (StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter())
{
serializer.Serialize(stringWriter, stock);
return stringWriter.ToString();
}
}

Not very intuitive, but the Indent property on the XmlWriterSettings controls the whole formatting:
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyClass));
using (var writer = new StreamWriter("file.path"))
using (var xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(writer, new XmlWriterSettings { Indent = false }))
{
serializer.Serialize(xmlWriter, myObject);
}
There are a few more options on XmlWriterSettings that you might want to explore.

It is simple to parse the resulting XML and remove and newlines and tabs...
using 'Indent = false', will still put elements on newlines no?

..
XmlSerializer xmlser = new XmlSerializer(...);
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings {Indent = false};
using (XmlWriter xw = XmlWriter.Create(stream, settings))
{
...

Make xml more readable

Is there any way to take an xml string in .net and make it easyer to read?
what i mean is can i convert this:
<element1><element2>some data</element2></element1>
to this:
<element1>
<element2>
some data
</element2>
</element1>
is there any built in class for this? as sql server 2005 seems to remove all formatting on xml to save space or some thing...

If you're using .NET 3.5, you can load it as an XDocument and then just call ToString() which will indent it appropriately. For example:
using System;
using System.Xml.Linq;
public class Test
{
static void Main()
{
string xml = "<element1><element2>some data</element2></element1>";
XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse(xml);
xml = doc.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(xml);
}
}
Result:
<element1>
<element2>some data</element2>
</element1>
If you're writing it to a file or other stream, then XDocument.Save will (by default) indent it too.
(I believe XElement has all the same features, if you don't really need an XDocument.)

How do you save / write the XML back to a file ?
You can create an XmlWriter and pass it an XmlWriterSettings instance, where you set the Indent property to true:
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.Indent = true;
XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create (outputStream, settings);

You can load the string into an XDocument object and save it to a string again:
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(new StringReader(xmlString));
StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
doc.Save(writer);
string readable = writer.ToString();
That will give you the xml formatted this way:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<element1>
<element2>some data</element2>
</element1>

Have a look at
XmlWriterSettings
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlwritersettings.aspx
you can define Indent and IndentChars

First of all, you have tagged C# and VB.NET both. So my answer will be for both of them.
You can define function which get XML string as a parameter in type of String.
Let's say;
You created a function as :
[VB]
Private Function PrettyXML(XMLString As String) As String
Dim sw As New StringWriter()
Dim xw As New XMLWriter(sw)
xw.Formatiing = Formatting.Indented
xw.Indentation = 4
Dim doc As New XMLDocument
doc.LoadXML(XMLString)
doc.Save(xw)
Return sw.ToString()
End Function
Then you can simpyl call this function as:
Dim myXML As String = "<element1><element2>some data</element2></element1>"
Dim myPrettyXML As String
myPrettyXML = PrettyXML(myPrettyXML)
[C#]
Private String PrettyXML(string XMLString)
{
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
XMLTextWriter xw = new XmlTextWriter(sw);
xw.Formatiing = Formatting.Indented;
xw.Indentation = 4;
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Save(xm);
return sw.ToString();
}
Then you can simply call this function as:
string myXML = "<element1><element2>some data</element2></element1>";
string myPrettyXML = "";
myPrettyXML = PrettyXML(myPrettyXML);
NOTE: I have not tried C# version, but it should work.
Hope this helps..