Unable to XML serialization when using .NET to consume REST Axis2 WS - c#

I'm trying to consume an Axis2 REST XML response using C#.NET with RestSharp and Linq. However I can't seem to serialize the XML response either using RestSharp or manually.
This is an example of the XML response from Axis2:
<ns:response xmlns:ns="http://com.some.where" xmlns:ax2488="http://com.some.where/xsd">
<ns:return xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:type="ax2488:Book">
<ax2488:field1>Orson Scott Card</ax2488:field1>
<ax2488:field1>Some One Else</ax2488:field1>
<ax2488:field2>1</ax2488:field2>
<ax2488:isbn10>142996393X</ax2488:isbn10>
<ax2488:isbn13>9781429963930</ax2488:isbn13>
<ax2488:date>2010</ax2488:date>
<ax2488:blah>Tom Doherty Associates</ax2488:blah>
<ax2488:ssss>on loan</ax2488:ssss>
<ax2488:name>Ender's Game Volume 1 of The Ender Quintet</ax2488:name>
</ns:return>
When I try to get the elements out there using XElements (Linq), I always get null?
var elements = root.Elements("Book");
I've tried a few different element names with no luck.
Also, using RestSharp, it successfully gets the first and only response, however if I have multiple responses, it returns null.
var response1 = _client.Execute<Book>(request);
var response2 = _client.Execute<List<Book>>(request);
Any help appreciated.

One possible way, using XDocument with XPath query :
using System.Xml.XPath;
var nsmgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(new NameTable());
//register prefixes for use in XPath
nsmgr.AddNamespace("ns", "http://com.some.where");
nsmgr.AddNamespace("xsi", "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance");
var xpath = "//ns:response/ns:return[#xsi:type='ax2488:Book']";
//above xpath consists of path from root to <ns:return> : //ns:response/ns:return
//and criteria for <ns:return> : [#xsi:type='ax2488:Book']
var doc = XDocument.Load("path_to_xml_file.xml");
var returnElements = doc.XPathSelectElements(xpath, nsmgr);
I assumed that your XML structure looks about like this :
<root>
<ns:response xmlns:ns="http://com.some.where" xmlns:ax2488="http://com.some.where/xsd">
<ns:return xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:type="ax2488:Book">
<ax2488:field1>Orson Scott Card</ax2488:field1>
<ax2488:field1>Some One Else</ax2488:field1>
<ax2488:field2>1</ax2488:field2>
<ax2488:isbn10>142996393X</ax2488:isbn10>
<ax2488:isbn13>9781429963930</ax2488:isbn13>
<ax2488:date>2010</ax2488:date>
<ax2488:blah>Tom Doherty Associates</ax2488:blah>
<ax2488:ssss>on loan</ax2488:ssss>
<ax2488:name>Ender's Game Volume 1 of The Ender Quintet</ax2488:name>
</ns:return>
</ns:response>
<ns:response xmlns:ns="http://com.some.where" xmlns:ax2488="http://com.some.where/xsd">
........
</ns:response>
........
........
</root>

Related

C# Using XPath with XmlDocument - Can't select nodes in a namespace (returning null)

I'm trying to do something which ought to be quite simple but I'm having terrible trouble. I have tried code from multiple similar questions in StackOverflow but to no avail.
I'm trying to get various pieces of information from an ABN lookup with the Australian government. Here is anonymised return XML value:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<soap:Body>
<ABRSearchByABNResponse xmlns="http://abr.business.gov.au/ABRXMLSearch/">
<ABRPayloadSearchResults>
<request>
<identifierSearchRequest>
<authenticationGUID>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</authenticationGUID>
<identifierType>ABN</identifierType>
<identifierValue>00 000 000 000</identifierValue>
<history>N</history>
</identifierSearchRequest>
</request>
<response>
<usageStatement>The Registrar of the ABR monitors the quality of the information available on this website and updates the information regularly. However, neither the Registrar of the ABR nor the Commonwealth guarantee that the information available through this service (including search results) is accurate, up to date, complete or accept any liability arising from the use of or reliance upon this site.</usageStatement>
<dateRegisterLastUpdated>2017-01-01</dateRegisterLastUpdated>
<dateTimeRetrieved>2017-01-01T00:00:00.2016832+10:00</dateTimeRetrieved>
<businessEntity>
<recordLastUpdatedDate>2017-01-01</recordLastUpdatedDate>
<ABN>
<identifierValue>00000000000</identifierValue>
<isCurrentIndicator>Y</isCurrentIndicator>
<replacedFrom>0001-01-01</replacedFrom>
</ABN>
<entityStatus>
<entityStatusCode>Active</entityStatusCode>
<effectiveFrom>2017-01-01</effectiveFrom>
<effectiveTo>0001-01-01</effectiveTo>
</entityStatus>
<ASICNumber>000000000</ASICNumber>
<entityType>
<entityTypeCode>PRV</entityTypeCode>
<entityDescription>Australian Private Company</entityDescription>
</entityType>
<goodsAndServicesTax>
<effectiveFrom>2017-01-01</effectiveFrom>
<effectiveTo>0001-01-01</effectiveTo>
</goodsAndServicesTax>
<mainName>
<organisationName>COMPANY LTD</organisationName>
<effectiveFrom>2017-01-01</effectiveFrom>
</mainName>
<mainBusinessPhysicalAddress>
<stateCode>NSW</stateCode>
<postcode>0000</postcode>
<effectiveFrom>2017-01-01</effectiveFrom>
<effectiveTo>0001-01-01</effectiveTo>
</mainBusinessPhysicalAddress>
</businessEntity>
</response>
</ABRPayloadSearchResults>
</ABRSearchByABNResponse>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
so I want to get for example the whole response using xpath="//response" then use various xpath statement within that node to get the <organisationName> ("//mainName/organisationName") and other values.
It should be simple right? Those xpath statements appear to work when testing in Notepad++but I use this code in Visual Studio:
XmlDocument xdoc = new XmlDocument();
xdoc.LoadXml(ipxml);
XmlNode xnode = xdoc.SelectSingleNode("//response");
XmlNodeList xlist = xdoc.SelectNodes("//mainName/organisationName");
xlist = xdoc.GetElementsByTagName("mainName");
But it always returns null, whatever I put in the xpath I get a null return for the node and 0 count for the list whether I'm selecting something with child nodes, a value or not.
I can get the nodes using GetElementsByTagName() as in the example which returns the correct node, but I wanted to do it 'properly' selecting the proper field using xpath.
I also tried using XElement and Linq but still no luck. Is there something weird about the XML?
I'm sure it must something simple but I've been struggling for ages.
You aren't dealing with the namespaces present in the document. Specifically, the high level element:
<ABRSearchByABNResponse xmlns="http://abr.business.gov.au/ABRXMLSearch/">
places ABRSearchByABNResponse, and all its child elements (unless overridden by another xmlns) into the namespace http://abr.business.gov.au/ABRXMLSearch/. In order to navigate to these nodes (without hacks like GetElementsByTagName or using local-name()), you'll need to register the namespaces with an XmlNamespaceManager, like so. The xmlns aliases don't necessarily need to match those used in the original document, but it's a good convention to do so:
XmlDocument
var xdoc = new XmlDocument();
var ns = new XmlNamespaceManager(xdoc.NameTable);
ns.AddNamespace("soap", "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/");
ns.AddNamespace("abr", "http://abr.business.gov.au/ABRXMLSearch/");
xdoc.LoadXml(ipxml);
// NB need to use the overload accepting a namespace
var xresponse = xdoc.SelectSingleNode("//abr:response", ns);
var xlist = xdoc.SelectNodes("//abr:mainName/abr:organisationName", ns);
XDocument
More recently, the powers of LINQ can be harnessed with XDocument, which makes working with namespaces much easier (Descendants finds child nodes at any depth)
var xdoc = XDocument.Parse(ipxml);
XNamespace soap = "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/";
XNamespace abr = "http://abr.business.gov.au/ABRXMLSearch/";
var xresponse = xdoc.Descendants(abr + "response");
var xlist = xdoc.Descendants(abr + "organisationName");
XDocument + XPath
You can also resort to using XPath in Linq to Xml, especially for more complicated expressions:
var xdoc = XDocument.Parse(ipxml);
var ns = new XmlNamespaceManager(new NameTable());
ns.AddNamespace("soap", "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/");
ns.AddNamespace("abr", "http://abr.business.gov.au/ABRXMLSearch/");
var xresponse = xdoc.XPathSelectElement("//abr:response", ns);
var xlist = xdoc.XPathSelectElement("//abr:mainName/abr:organisationName", ns);
You need to call SelectSingleNode and SelectNodes on the DocumentElement. You are calling them on the document itself.
For example:
XmlNode xnode = xdoc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("//response");

Unable to use XmlDocument.SelectSingleNode on XML with Two Namespaces

I'm trying to parse the following XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<A2AAnf:MPPPPPP xsi:schemaLocation="urn:A2AAnf:xsd:$MPPPPPP.xsd" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:A2AAnf="urn:A2AAnf:xsd:$MPPPPPP">
<A2AAnf:Num>0</A2AAnf:Num>
<A2AAnf:FIT xmlns="urn:iso:std:iso:20022:xsd:003.001">
<Hdr>
<Inf>
<Mtd>TEST</Mtd>
</Inf>
</Hdr>
</A2AAnf:FIT>
I want to access the <Mtd> tag.
XMLQuire shows the path to be /A2AAnf:MPPPPPP/A2AAnf:FIT/dft:Hdr/dft:Inf/dft:Mtd, but when I'm trying to parse it using the following code:
XmlDocument xmldocument = new XmlDocument();
var xmlNameSpaceManager = new XmlNamespaceManager(xmldocument.NameTable);
xmlNameSpaceManager.AddNamespace("A2AAnf", "urn:A2AAnf:xsd:$MPPPPPP");
try
{
xmldocument.LoadXml(m_XML);
var node = xmldocument.SelectSingleNode("/A2AAnf:MPPPPPP/A2AAnf:FIT/dft:Hdr/dft:Inf/dft:Mtd", xmlNameSpaceManager);
}
I receive the following error:
namespace prefix 'dft' is not defined
And since I can't find "dft" in my XML, I also tried to remove the "dft" prefix and search for the same string without "dft". This time, nothing was returned.
What am I missing?
You have to add dft to your XmlNamespaceManager:
var xmlNameSpaceManager = new XmlNamespaceManager(xmldocument.NameTable);
xmlNameSpaceManager.AddNamespace("A2AAnf", "urn:A2AAnf:xsd:$MPPPPPP");
xmlNameSpaceManager.AddNamespace("dft", "urn:iso:std:iso:20022:xsd:003.001");
The prefixes you use in your XPath query have nothing to do with the prefixes used in the XML document. They are instead the prefixes you define in your XmlNamespaceManager.

Selecting values from an xml document object with XPATH in code behind (c#)

I am trying to select specific values from a xml document using XPath. The xml is stored into a string varibale "tmp". This xml is the result of a query performed on a external API.
sample XML contents:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<Results>
<Checks>
<Check id="wbc">
<Linespeed>6000 </Linespeed>
<Provider>BT WBC </Provider>
</Check>
<Check id="adsl">
<Linespeed>2048 </Linespeed>
<Provider>BT ADSL </Provider>
</Check>
</Checks>
</Results>
Using XPATH in code behind I want to be able to select the and only for id=adsl, then store the value in a string variable for later use. I want to achieve this withouth the use of a separate xslt stylesheet.
Here is the code I have written for this but I am getting an error:
//Creating an XPATH epression
String strExpression1;
strExpression1 = "Results/Checks/Check[#id = 'adsl']/Linespeed";
//Loading the xml document
XmlDocument doc;
doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(tmp);
//Create an XmlNamespaceManager to resolve the default namespace.
XmlNamespaceManager nsmgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(doc.NameTable);
nsmgr.AddNamespace("bk", "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt");
//Selecting Linespeed from Check id='adsl'
XmlNode Check;
XmlElement root = doc.DocumentElement;
Check = root.SelectSingleNode(strExpression1, nsmgr);
//Assigning the the results of the XPATH expression to the variable Linespeedval
string Linespeedval = Check.ToString();
//Adding a control to display the xpath results of the "tmp" xml objectt
AvailabilityCheckerResults2.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl(Linespeedval));
Any assistance will be greately appreciated! Thanks in advance!
strExpression1 = "/Results/Checks/Check[#id = 'adsl']/Linespeed";
//or strExpression1 = "//Checks/Check[#id = 'adsl']/Linespeed";
//doc has no namespace
Check = root.SelectSingleNode(strExpression1);
....
string Linespeedval = Check.InnerText;
Take a look at this article. It has step by step instruction to parse xml using xpath.
How to query XML with an XPath expression by using Visual C#

XPathSelectElement always returns null

Why is this Xpath not working using XDocument.XPathSelectElement?
Xpath:
//Plugin/UI[1]/PluginPageCategory[1]/Page[1]/Group[1]/CommandRef[2]
XML
<Plugin xmlns="http://www.MyNamespace.ca/MyPath">
<UI>
<PluginPageCategory>
<Page>
<Group>
<CommandRef>
<Images>
</Images>
</CommandRef>
<CommandRef>
<Images>
</Images>
</CommandRef>
</Group>
</Page>
</PluginPageCategory>
</UI>
</Plugin>
C# Code:
myXDocument.XPathSelectElement("//Plugin/UI[1]/PluginPageCategory[1]/Page[1]/Group[1]/CommandRef[2]", myXDocument.Root.CreateNavigator());
When namespaces are used, these must be used in the XPath query also. Your XPath query would only work against elements with no namespace (as can be verified by removing the namespace from your XML).
Here's an example showing how you create and pass a namespace manager:
var xml = ... XML from your post ...;
var xmlReader = XmlReader.Create( new StringReader(xml) ); // Or whatever your source is, of course.
var myXDocument = XDocument.Load( xmlReader );
var namespaceManager = new XmlNamespaceManager( xmlReader.NameTable ); // We now have a namespace manager that knows of the namespaces used in your document.
namespaceManager.AddNamespace( "prefix", "http://www.MyNamespace.ca/MyPath" ); // We add an explicit prefix mapping for our query.
var result = myXDocument.XPathSelectElement(
"//prefix:Plugin/prefix:UI[1]/prefix:PluginPageCategory[1]/prefix:Page[1]/prefix:Group[1]/prefix:CommandRef[2]",
namespaceManager
); // We use that prefix against the elements in the query.
Console.WriteLine(result); // <CommandRef ...> element is printed.
Hope this helps.
This should probably be a comment on #Cumbayah's post, but I can't seem to leave comments on anything.
You are probably better off using something like this instead of using XmlReader to get the nametable.
var xml = ... XML from your post ...;
var myXDocument = XDocument.Parse(xml);
var namespaceManager = new XmlNamespaceManager(new NameTable());
namespaceManager.AddNamespace("prefix", "http://www.MyNamespace.ca/MyPath");
var result = ...;
The easiest way in your case is to use XPath axes and node test for node name and position to select the element.
Your XPath selection:
myXDocument.XPathSelectElement("//Plugin/UI[1]/PluginPageCategory[1]/Page[1]/Group[1]/CommandRef[2]", myXDocument.Root.CreateNavigator());
Can be easily translate to:
myXDocument.XPathSelectElement("/child::node()[local-name()='Plugin']/child::node()[local-name()='UI'][position()=1]/child::node()[local-name()='PluginPageCategory'][position()=1]/child::node()[local-name()='Page'][position()=1]/child::node()[local-name()='Group'][position()=1]/child::node()[local-name()='CommandRef'][position()=2]");
There is no need to create and pass XmlNamespaceManager as parameter.
There is a way to do it without any change to the xpath. The solution I've found is to remove the namespace when parsing the XML into the XDocument.
Here is an exemple:
var regex = #"(xmlns:?[^=]*=[""][^""]*[""])";
var myXDocument = XDocument.Parse(Regex.Replace("MyXmlContent", regex, "", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Multiline))
Now that the namespace is gone, it is easyer to manipulate.

SelectSingleNode return null - even with namespace

I know this question has been asked in a similar fashion before, but I can't seem to get this working.
I have some xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<Research xmlns="http://www.rixml.org/2005/3/RIXML" xmlns:xalan="http://xml.apache.org/xalan" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" createDateTime="2011-03-29T15:41:48Z" language="eng" researchID="MusiJvs3008">
<Product productID="MusiJvs3008">
<StatusInfo currentStatusIndicator="Yes" statusDateTime="2011-03-29T15:41:48Z" statusType="Published" />
<Source>
<Organization type="SellSideFirm" primaryIndicator="Yes">
<OrganizationID idType="Reuters">9999</OrganizationID>
And I'm trying to read values using xpath:
XPathDocument xmldoc = new XPathDocument(xmlFile);
XPathNavigator nav = xmldoc.CreateNavigator();
XmlNamespaceManager nsMgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(nav.NameTable);
nsMgr.AddNamespace(string.Empty, "http://www.rixml.org/2005/3/RIXML");
XPathNavigator result = nav.SelectSingleNode("/Research", nsMgr); // <-- Returns null!
But even a simple select of the root node returns null! I am sure I have something wrong with my namespace. Can someone please help?
Ideally I want simple lines that will let me select values from the xml file, i.e.
String a = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode(#"/Research/Product/Content/Title").Value;
BTW, I have no (direct) control over the XML file content.
I don't believe you can use an empty namespace alias and have it used automatically by the XPath expression. As soon as you use an actual alias, it should work though. This test is fine, for example:
using System;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.XPath;
class Test
{
static void Main()
{
string xmlFile = "test.xml";
XPathDocument xmldoc = new XPathDocument(xmlFile);
XPathNavigator nav = xmldoc.CreateNavigator();
XmlNamespaceManager nsMgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(nav.NameTable);
nsMgr.AddNamespace("x", "http://www.rixml.org/2005/3/RIXML");
XPathNavigator result = nav.SelectSingleNode("/x:Research", nsMgr);
Console.WriteLine(result);
}
}
Do you have to use XPath and XPathDocument, by the way? I tend to find that LINQ to XML is a much more pleasant API, particularly when it comes to namespaces. If you're using .NET 3.5 and you have no particular requirement to use XPath, I'd suggest you check it out.
Make the following changes
nsMgr.AddNamespace("x", "http://www.rixml.org/2005/3/RIXML");
XPathNavigator result = nav.SelectSingleNode("/x:Research", nsMgr);
i could post, and answer my own question, for the native equivalent of this code. Instead i'll just add it as an answer to the end.
When using the native IXMLDOMDocument (version 6) object:
//Give the default namespace as alias of "x"
document.setProperty("SelectionNamespaces","xmlns:x='http://www.rixml.org/2005/3/RIXML'");
//Query for the nodes we want
document.selectSingleNode("/x:Research");
Bonus Question: Why, oh why, does no Xml Document object model query the default namespace when no namespace is specified... sigh

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