April 4, 2007
One thing that’s annoying is that majority of the XML example assumes that you are loading an XML document from a file, so here’s a simple code example for generating it entirely in memory.
// Create the xml document containe
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();// Create the XML Declaration, and append it to XML document
XmlDeclaration dec = doc.CreateXmlDeclaration("1.0", null, null);
doc.AppendChild(dec);// Create the root element
XmlElement root = doc.CreateElement("Library");
doc.AppendChild(root);
// Create Books
// Note that to set the text inside the element,
// you use .InnerText instead of .Value (which will throw an exception).
// You use SetAttribute to set attribute
XmlElement book = doc.CreateElement("Book");
book.SetAttribute("BookType", "Hardcover");
XmlElement title = doc.CreateElement("Title");
title.InnerText = "Door Number Three";
XmlElement author = doc.CreateElement("Author");
author.InnerText = "O'Leary, Patrick";
book.AppendChild(title);
book.AppendChild(author);
root.AppendChild(book);
book = doc.CreateElement("Book");
book.SetAttribute("BookType", "Paperback");
title = doc.CreateElement("Title");
title.InnerText = "Lord of Light";
author = doc.CreateElement("Author");
author.InnerText = "Zelanzy, Roger";
book.AppendChild(title);
book.AppendChild(author);
root.AppendChild(book);
string xmlOutput = doc.OuterXml;
The same code but using an XMLWriter to a memory stream.
XmlWriterSettings wSettings = new XmlWriterSettings();
wSettings.Indent = true;
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
XmlWriter xw = XmlWriter.Create(ms, wSettings);// Write Declaration
xw.WriteStartDocument();
// Write the root node
xw.WriteStartElement("Library");
// Write the books and the book elements
xw.WriteStartElement("Book");
xw.WriteStartAttribute("BookType");
xw.WriteString("Hardback");
xw.WriteEndAttribute();
xw.WriteStartElement("Title");
xw.WriteString("Door Number Three");
xw.WriteEndElement();
xw.WriteStartElement("Author");
xw.WriteString("O'Leary, Patrick");
xw.WriteEndElement();
xw.WriteEndElement();
// Write another book
xw.WriteStartElement("Book");
xw.WriteStartAttribute("BookType");
xw.WriteString("Paperback");
xw.WriteEndAttribute();
xw.WriteStartElement("Title");
xw.WriteString("Lord of Light");
xw.WriteEndElement();
xw.WriteStartElement("Author");
xw.WriteString("Zelanzy, Roger");
xw.WriteEndElement();
xw.WriteEndElement();
// Close the document
xw.WriteEndDocument();
// Flush the write
xw.Flush();
Byte[] buffer = new Byte[ms.Length];
buffer = ms.ToArray();
string xmlOutput = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer);
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<CategoryList>
<Category ID="01">
<MainCategory>XML</MainCategory>
<Description>This is a list my XML articles.</Description>
<Active>true</Active>
</Category>
</CategoryList>
Here's the code:
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Xml" %>
<%@ Page Language="C#" Debug="true" %>
<script runat="server">
void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e){
if(!Page.IsPostBack){
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
// Write down the XML declaration
XmlDeclaration xmlDeclaration = xmlDoc.CreateXmlDeclaration("1.0","utf-8",null);
// Create the root element
XmlElement rootNode = xmlDoc.CreateElement("CategoryList");
xmlDoc.InsertBefore(xmlDeclaration, xmlDoc.DocumentElement);
xmlDoc.AppendChild(rootNode);
// Create a new <Category> element and add it to the root node
XmlElement parentNode = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Category");
// Set attribute name and value!
parentNode.SetAttribute("ID", "01");
xmlDoc.DocumentElement.PrependChild(parentNode);
// Create the required nodes
XmlElement mainNode = xmlDoc.CreateElement("MainCategory");
XmlElement descNode = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Description");
XmlElement activeNode = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Active");
// retrieve the text
XmlText categoryText= xmlDoc.CreateTextNode("XML");
XmlText descText = xmlDoc.CreateTextNode("This is a list my XML articles.");
XmlText activeText = xmlDoc.CreateTextNode("true");
// append the nodes to the parentNode without the value
parentNode.AppendChild(mainNode);
parentNode.AppendChild(descNode);
parentNode.AppendChild(activeNode);
// save the value of the fields into the nodes
mainNode.AppendChild(categoryText);
descNode.AppendChild(descText);
activeNode.AppendChild(activeText);
// Save to the XML file
xmlDoc.Save( Server.MapPath("categories.xml"));
Response.Write("XML file created");
}
}
</script>