Develop Reference

Accessing a sub attribute in a XML file using XElement

In C#, I am trying to change an option of a feature in an XML file which presents a Print Ticket and loaded as an XElement by the following code:
XElement ticketRootXElement = null;
using (Stream ticketReadStream = displayedPrintTicket.GetReadStream())
{
ticketRootXElement = XElement.Load(ticketReadStream);
}
The partial XML is something like following:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<psf:Feature xmlns:psf="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2003/08/printing/printschemaframework" name="psk:PageMediaSize">
<psf:Option name="psk:ISOA4">
<psf:ScoredProperty name="psk:MediaSizeWidth">
<psf:Value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:type="xsd:integer">210000</psf:Value>
</psf:ScoredProperty>
<psf:ScoredProperty name="psk:MediaSizeHeight">
<psf:Value xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:type="xsd:integer">297000</psf:Value>
</psf:ScoredProperty>
</psf:Option>
</psf:Feature>
How can I access the "Option" of a specific "Feature" and change it to something like <psf:Option name="psk:ISOA3">?
I tried the following code, but it fails.
foreach (XAttribute xAttr in ticketRootXElement.Descendants(xns_psf + "Feature").Attributes())
{
if (xAttr.Value.Equals("psk:PageMediaSize"))
{
foreach(XAttribute xSubAttr in ticketRootXElement.Element("PageMediaSize").Descendants(xns_psf + "Option").Attributes())
{
if (xAttr.NextAttribute.Name.LocalName.Equals("name"))
{
xAttr.NextAttribute.SetValue("psk:ISO" + cmb_PaperSize.SelectedValue.ToString());
}
}
}
}

You can can modify the option value of your selected feature as as follows:
var featureName = "psk:PageMediaSize";
var newOptionValue = "psk:ISOA3"; // Your modified value here
XNamespace xns_psf = #"http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2003/08/printing/printschemaframework";
var query = from f in ticketRootXElement.DescendantsAndSelf(xns_psf + "Feature")
where (string)f.Attribute("name") == featureName
select f;
foreach (var f in query)
{
// TODO: handle the situation were a child <psf:Option> element is missing.
f.Element(xns_psf + "Option").SetAttributeValue("name", newOptionValue);
}
Notes:
XElement.Attribute(XName) can be used to look up an attribute by name, and XElement.SetAttributeValue(XName, Object) can be used to set or add an attribute value by name.
Casting an XAttribute to a string returns the value of the attribute, or null if the attribute was missing, and so is convenient to use when filtering by attribute value in a where statement.
If the selected <psf:Feature> element does not have a child <psf:Option> element, the above code will throw an exception. You will need to check your XML schema to determine whether this is possible, and if so, how to handle it.
Demo fiddle here.

Actually I did it using the following code. But "bdc" solution (above answer) sounds much better:
var element = ticketRootXElement.Descendants(xns_psf + "Feature")
.Where(arg => arg.Attribute("name").Value == "psk:PageMediaSize")
.Single();
var subelement = element.Descendants(xns_psf + "Option")
.Single();
subelement.FirstAttribute.SetValue("psk:ISOA3");

Updating a specific XML node

I am new to XML files and how to manage them. This is for a web app I am writing (aspx).
At the present time I am able to find the first instance of a node and add an item to it with the following code:
xmlClone.Element("PCs").Element("PC").Element("pc_hwStatus").AddAfterSelf(new XElement("user_name", txt_v0_nombre.Text));
What I really want is to add ("user_name", txt_v0_nombre.Text) to a node in particular, not the first one. The content of my XML file is:
<PCs>
<PC>
<pc_name>esc01</pc_name>
<pc_ip>10.10.10.10</pc_ip>
<pc_hwStatus>Working</pc_hwStatus>
</PC>
<PC>
<pc_name>esc02</pc_name>
<pc_ip>10.10.10.11</pc_ip>
<pc_hwStatus>Under Maintenance</pc_hwStatus>
</PC>
</PCs>
The decision of what node to update is made selecting an item from a dropdown list (the PC name).
With my current code, the new item is always added as last line of node with "pc_
name = esc01". I want to be able to added it to esc02 or esc03 and so on... How can this be accomplished? (Using xdocument)

If I understand you correctly, what you are looking for is the FirstOrDefault extension method. In there specify which node you are wanting, in this case a string from your dropdown box, which can be passed in. So to get the first node:
var pc = xmlClone.Element("PCs").Elements("PC").FirstOrDefault(e => e.Element("pc_name").Value == "esc01");
Now you have this in your XElement:
<PC>
<pc_name>esc01</pc_name>
<pc_ip>10.10.10.10</pc_ip>
<pc_hwStatus>Working</pc_hwStatus>
</PC>
To get any element like that, just replace this clause:
.FirstOrDefault(e => e.Element("pc_name").Value == "esc01");
with this one
.FirstOrDefault(e => e.Element("pc_name").Value == desiredPC);
where desiredPC is the value of the xml node: pc_name.
Now to add your data just call the plain old Add method:
pc.Add(new XElement("user_name", txt_v0_nombre.Text);
That should do the trick for you.

Here's a solution that uses LINQ query syntax with LINQ to XML:
XDocument document = XDocument.Parse(xmlContent);
string pcName = "esc02";
IEnumerable<XElement> query =
from pc in document.Element("PCs").Elements("PC")
where pc.Element("pc_name").Value.Equals(pcName)
select pc;
XElement xe = query.FirstOrDefault();
if (xe != null)
{
xe.Add(new XElement("user_name", "DMS"));
}
I have incorporated your sample data and this query into a demonstration program. Please see below for the output from the demonstration program followed by the program itself.
Expected Output
<PC>
<pc_name>esc02</pc_name>
<pc_ip>10.10.10.11</pc_ip>
<pc_hwStatus>Under Maintenance</pc_hwStatus>
<user_name>DMS</user_name>
</PC>
Demonstration Program
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Xml.Linq;
namespace LinqToXmlDemo
{
public class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
string xmlContent = GetXml();
XDocument document = XDocument.Parse(xmlContent);
XElement xe = FindPCName(document, "esc02");
if (xe != null)
{
xe.Add(new XElement("user_name", "DMS"));
Console.WriteLine(xe);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Query returned no results.");
}
}
private static XElement FindPCName(XDocument document, String pcName)
{
IEnumerable<XElement> query =
from pc in document.Element("PCs").Elements("PC")
where pc.Element("pc_name").Value.Equals(pcName)
select pc;
return query.FirstOrDefault();
}
private static String GetXml()
{
return
#"<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<PCs>
<PC>
<pc_name>esc01</pc_name>
<pc_ip>10.10.10.10</pc_ip>
<pc_hwStatus>Working</pc_hwStatus>
</PC>
<PC>
<pc_name>esc02</pc_name>
<pc_ip>10.10.10.11</pc_ip>
<pc_hwStatus>Under Maintenance</pc_hwStatus>
</PC>
</PCs>";
}
}
}

Method .Element returns the first element with the specified name.
You can get the whole list with method .Elements, and iterate this list to find the one you are looking for.

Split XML document apart creating multiple output files from repeating elements

I need to take an XML file and create multiple output xml files from the repeating nodes of the input file. The source file "AnimalBatch.xml" looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Animals>
<Animal id="1001">
<Quantity>One</Quantity>
<Adjective>Red</Adjective>
<Name>Rooster</Name>
</Animal>
<Animal id="1002">
<Quantity>Two</Quantity>
<Adjective>Stubborn</Adjective>
<Name>Donkeys</Name>
</Animal>
<Animal id="1003">
<Quantity>Three</Quantity>
<Color>Blind</Color>
<Name>Mice</Name>
</Animal>
</Animals>
The program needs to split the repeating "Animal" and produce 3 files named: Animal_1001.xml, Animal_1002.xml, and Animal_1003.xml
Each output file should contain just their respective element (which will be the root). The id attribute from AnimalsBatch.xml will supply the sequence number for the Animal_xxxx.xml filenames. The id attribute does not need to be in the output files.
Animal_1001.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Animal>
<Quantity>One</Quantity>
<Adjective>Red</Adjective>
<Name>Rooster</Name>
</Animal>
Animal_1002.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Animal>
<Quantity>Two</Quantity>
<Adjective>Stubborn</Adjective>
<Name>Donkeys</Name>
</Animal>
Animal_1003.xml>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Animal>
<Quantity>Three</Quantity>
<Adjective>Blind</Adjective>
<Name>Mice</Name>
</Animal>
I want to do this with XmlDocument, since it needs to be able to run on .Net 2.0.
My program looks like this:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string strFileName;
string strSeq;
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load("D:\\Rick\\Computer\\XML\\AnimalBatch.xml");
XmlNodeList nl = doc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("Animal");
foreach (XmlNode n in nl)
{
strSeq = n.Attributes["id"].Value;
XmlDocument outdoc = new XmlDocument();
XmlNode rootnode = outdoc.CreateNode("element", "Animal", "");
outdoc.AppendChild(rootnode); // Put the wrapper element into outdoc
outdoc.ImportNode(n, true); // place the node n into outdoc
outdoc.AppendChild(n); // This statement errors:
// "The node to be inserted is from a different document context."
strFileName = "Animal_" + strSeq + ".xml";
outdoc.Save(Console.Out);
Console.WriteLine();
}
Console.WriteLine("END OF PROGRAM: Press <ENTER>");
Console.ReadLine();
}
I think I have 2 problems.
A) After doing the ImportNode on node n into outdoc, I call outdoc.AppendChild(n) which complains: "The node to be inserted is from a different document context." I do not know if this is a scope issue referencing node n within the ForEach loop - or if I am somehow not using ImportNode() or AppendChild properly. 2nd argument on ImportNode() is set to true, because I want the child elements of Animal (3 fields arbitrarily named Quantity, Adjective, and Name) to end up in the destination file.
B) Second problem is getting the Animal element into outdoc. I'm getting '' but I need ' ' so I can place node n inside it. I think my problem is how I am doing: outdoc.AppendChild(rootnode);
To show the xml, I'm doing: outdoc.Save(Console.Out); I do have the code to save() to an output file - which does work, as long as I can get outdoc assembled properly.
There is a similar question at: Split XML in Multiple XML files, but I don't understand the solution code yet. I think I'm pretty close on this approach, and will appreciate any help you can provide.
I'm going to be doing this same task using XmlReader, since I'm going to need to be able to handle large input files, and I understand that XmlDocument reads the whole thing in and can cause memory issues.

That's a simple method that seems what you are looking for
public void test_xml_split()
{
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load("C:\\animals.xml");
XmlDocument newXmlDoc = null;
foreach (XmlNode animalNode in doc.SelectNodes("//Animals/Animal"))
{
newXmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
var targetNode = newXmlDoc.ImportNode(animalNode, true);
newXmlDoc.AppendChild(targetNode);
newXmlDoc.Save(Console.Out);
Console.WriteLine();
}
}

This approach seems to work without using the "var targetnode" statement. It creates an XmlNode object called targetNode from outdoc's "Animal" element in the ForEach loop. I think the main things that were problems in my original code were: A) I was getting nodelist nl incorrectly. And B) I couldn't "Import" node n, I think because it was associated specifically with doc. It had to be created as its own Node.
The problem with the prior proposed solution was the use of the "var" keyword. My program has to assume 2.0 and that came in with v3.0. I like Rogers solution, in that it is concise. For me - I wanted to do each thing as a separate statement.
static void SplitXMLDocument()
{
string strFileName;
string strSeq;
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument(); // The input file
doc.Load("D:\\Rick\\Computer\\XML\\AnimalBatch.xml");
XmlNodeList nl = doc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("//Animals/Animal");
foreach (XmlNode n in nl)
{
strSeq = n.Attributes["id"].Value; // Animal nodes have an id attribute
XmlDocument outdoc = new XmlDocument(); // Create the outdoc xml document
XmlNode targetNode = outdoc.CreateElement("Animal"); // Create a separate node to hold the Animal element
targetNode = outdoc.ImportNode(n, true); // Bring over that Animal
targetNode.Attributes.RemoveAll(); // Remove the id attribute in <Animal id="1001">
outdoc.ImportNode(targetNode, true); // place the node n into outdoc
outdoc.AppendChild(targetNode); // AppendChild to make it stick
strFileName = "Animal_" + strSeq + ".xml";
outdoc.Save(Console.Out); Console.WriteLine();
outdoc.Save("D:\\Rick\\Computer\\XML\\" + strFileName);
Console.WriteLine();
}
}

LINQ: How to return all child elements?

For an application I am working on, I have to display data from an XML File. There's a few transformations being done, but eventually the end result will be displayed in a treeview. When a user then clicks on a node, I want to pop up the details in a listview.
When no node has been selected, I basically use LINQ to grab the details of the first item I encounter.
Here's a simplified version of my XML
<root>
<parent label="parent1">
<child label="child1">
<element1>data</element1>
<element2>data</element2>
...
</child>
<child label="child2">
<element1>data</element1>
<element2>data</element2>
...
</child>
</parent>
</root>
And here's the code used to grab it (After selecting the parent-node that the treeview has been set to by means of an XPAthSelectStatement):
protected void listsSource_Selecting(object sender, LinqDataSourceSelectEventArgs e)
{
XElement rootElement = XElement.Load(MapPath(TreeSource.DataFile));
rootElement = rootElement.XPathSelectElement("//parent[#label='parent1']");
XElement parentElement;
parentElement = rootElement;
var query = (from itemElement in parentElement.Descendants("child")
select new
{
varElement1 = itemElement.Element("element1").Value,
varElement2 = itemElement.Element("element2").Value,
...
}).Take(1);
e.result = Query;
}
This works a treat, and I can read out the varElement1 and varElement2 values from there. However, when I try and implement a similar mechanism for when the user actually did select a node, I seem to run into a wall.
My approach was to use another XPatchSelectStatement to get to the actual node:
parentElement = rootElement.XPathSelectElement("//child[#label='" + tvwChildren.SelectedNode.Text + "']");
But I am kind of stumped on how to now get a proper LINQ query built up to read in all elements nested under the child node. I tried using parentElement.Elements(), but that was yielding an error. I also looked at using Nodes(), but with similar results.
I suppose I could use a foreach loop to access the nodes, but then I'm not sure how to get the results into a LINQ query so I can return the same e.Result = query back.
I'm fairly new to LINQ, as you might have guessed, so any hints would be very much appreciated.

Here's the query that will give you the child element (given that there is only one child element with the specified label):
var childElement = rootNode.Descendants("child")
.Single(e=>e.Attribute("label").Value == "child1");
If you have more than one child elements with label="child1" but those elements are under different parent elements you can use the same approach to get first the parent element and then the child element.
Having the above, you can use this query to get all element nodes under the child node:
var elements = childElement.Descendants().Select(e=>e.Value);

I think data binding is much easier in this case.
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(filePath);
if (doc.Root == null)
{
throw new ApplicationException("invalid data");
}
tvwChildren.Source=doc;
But if you want in this way hope following one helps(not the exact solution)
XElement root = XElement.Load("Employees.xml");
TreeNode rootNode = new TreeNode(root.Name.LocalName);
treeView1.Nodes.Add(rootNode);
foreach(XElement employee in root.Elements())
{
TreeNode employeeNode = new TreeNode("Employee ID :" + employee.Attribute("employeeid").Value);
rootNode.Nodes.Add(employeeNode);
if (employee.HasElements)
{
foreach(XElement employeechild in employee.Descendants())
{
TreeNode childNode = new TreeNode(employeechild.Value);
employeeNode.Nodes.Add(childNode);
}
}
}
And you can try Resharper tool for create better linq statements. It shows possible ones and you can easily convert each for,foreach loops into linq statements.

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you're trying to do, but it sounds like it could be this:
var data =
from p in xml.Root.Elements("parent")
where p.Attribute("label").Value == "parent1"
from c in p.Elements("child")
where c.Attribute("label").Value == "child2"
from d in c.Elements()
select d.Value;
Let me know if that helps.

Using this Xml library you can write your XPath like:
XElement child = rootElement.XPathElement(
"//parent[#label={0}]/child[#label={1}]", "parent1", "child2");

Removing nodes from an XmlDocument

The following code should find the appropriate project tag and remove it from the XmlDocument, however when I test it, it says:
The node to be removed is not a child of this node.
Does anyone know the proper way to do this?
public void DeleteProject (string projectName)
{
string ccConfigPath = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ConfigPath"];
XmlDocument configDoc = new XmlDocument();
configDoc.Load(ccConfigPath);
XmlNodeList projectNodes = configDoc.GetElementsByTagName("project");
for (int i = 0; i < projectNodes.Count; i++)
{
if (projectNodes[i].Attributes["name"] != null)
{
if (projectName == projectNodes[i].Attributes["name"].InnerText)
{
configDoc.RemoveChild(projectNodes[i]);
configDoc.Save(ccConfigPath);
}
}
}
}
UPDATE
Fixed. I did two things:
XmlNode project = configDoc.SelectSingleNode("//project[#name='" + projectName + "']");
Replaced the For loop with an XPath query, which wasn't for fixing it, just because it was a better approach.
The actual fix was:
project.ParentNode.RemoveChild(project);
Thanks Pat and Chuck for this suggestion.

Instead of
configDoc.RemoveChild(projectNodes[i]);
try
projectNodes[i].parentNode.RemoveChild(projectNodes[i]);

try
configDoc.DocumentElement.RemoveChild(projectNodes[i]);

Looks like you need to select the parent node of projectNodes[i] before calling RemoveChild.

When you get sufficiently annoyed by writing it the long way (for me that was fairly soon) you can use a helper extension method provided below. Yay new technology!
public static class Extensions {
...
public static XmlNode RemoveFromParent(this XmlNode node) {
return (node == null) ? null : node.ParentNode.RemoveChild(node);
}
}
...
//some_long_node_expression.parentNode.RemoveChild(some_long_node_expression);
some_long_node_expression.RemoveFromParent();

Is it possible that the project nodes aren't child nodes, but grandchildren or lower? GetElementsByTagName will give you elements from anywhere in the child element tree, IIRC.

It would be handy to see a sample of the XML file you're processing but my guess would be that you have something like this
<Root>
<Blah>
<project>...</project>
</Blah>
</Root>
The error message seems to be because you're trying to remove <project> from the grandparent rather than the direct parent of the project node