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XDocument Descendant Selector using Wildcard?

I have some XML structured like this:
<form>
<section-1>
<item-1>
<value />
</item-1>
<item-2>
<value />
</item-2>
</section-1>
<section-2>
<item-3>
<value />
</item-3>
<item-4>
<value />
</item-4>
</section-2>
</form>
...and want to turn it into something sane like this:
<form>
<items>
<item id="1">
<value/>
</item>
<item id="2">
<value/>
</item>
<item id="3">
<value/>
</item>
<item id="4">
<value/>
</item>
</items>
</form>
I am struggling to turn the old XML into an array or object of values. Once in the new format I'd be able to do the following:
XDocument foo = XDocument.Load(form.xml);
var items = foo.Descendants("item")
.Select(i => new Item
{
value = i.Element("value").Value
});
...but in the current mess the xml is in can I wildcard the descendants selector?
var items = foo.Descendants("item"*)
...or something? I tried to follow this question's answer but failed to adapt it to my purpose.

Ah-ha! It did click in the end. If I leave the descendants selector blank and add in a where statement along the lines of what's in this question's answer
.Where(d => d.Name.ToString().StartsWith("item-"))
Then we get:
XDocument foo = XDocument.Load(form.xml);
var items = foo.Descendants()
.Where(d => d.Name.ToString().StartsWith("item-"))
.Select(i => new Item
{
value = i.Element("value").Value
});
...and I'm now able to iterate through those values while outputting the new XML format. Happiness.

insert xml tag with c#

I'm trying to insert a XML tag in an existing xml-file. To insert an XML-Tag in C# is not really a problem, but my Problem is, that i need the new beginning-tag and the ending-tag on a certain place in that file ... can anybody help me ...
here an Example:
this is the xml-file before:
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<DocumentElement>
<Item>
<ItemID>2711</ItemID>
<ItemTypeID>P</ItemTypeID>
<ColorID>1</ColorID>
</Item>
<Item>
<ItemID>64566</ItemID>
<ItemTypeID>P</ItemTypeID>
<ColorID>3</ColorID>
</Item>
</DocumentElement>
... this should be the new XML-file -> with the new tag "Inventory":
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<DocumentElement>
<Inventory>
<Item>
<ItemID>2711</ItemID>
<ItemTypeID>P</ItemTypeID>
<ColorID>1</ColorID>
</Item>
<Item>
<ItemID>64566</ItemID>
<ItemTypeID>P</ItemTypeID>
<ColorID>3</ColorID>
</Item>
</Inventory>
</DocumentElement>
can anybody help me?

You can wrap the existing Items in a new XElement then replace the nodes on the original document:
XDocument doc = XDocument.Parse("<DocumentElement><Item><ItemID>2711</ItemID><ItemTypeID>P</ItemTypeID><ColorID>1</ColorID></Item><Item><ItemID>64566</ItemID><ItemTypeID>P</ItemTypeID><ColorID>3</ColorID></Item></DocumentElement>");
var items = doc.Descendants("Item");
XElement inventory = new XElement("Inventory");
inventory.Add(items);
doc.Root.ReplaceNodes(inventory);
//now you can save the XDocument to a file or whatever
Creates this:
<DocumentElement>
<Inventory>
<Item>
<ItemID>2711</ItemID>
<ItemTypeID>P</ItemTypeID>
<ColorID>1</ColorID>
</Item>
<Item>
<ItemID>64566</ItemID>
<ItemTypeID>P</ItemTypeID>
<ColorID>3</ColorID>
</Item>
</Inventory>
</DocumentElement>
If you have LINQPad you can run this script: http://share.linqpad.net/7c636x.linq

You can try this
var doc = XDocument.Load(file);
var characters = doc.Descendants("DocumentElement").FirstOrDefault();
if (characters != null)
{
XElement xe = new XElement("Inventory");
characters.Add(xe);
var oColl = doc.Descendants("Item");
xe.Add(oColl);
}
doc.Save(file);

XMLNodeList not retrieving right Nodes

I am creating application to make Mod Menu's for Modern Warfare 3 (XRPC). I am making it customisable with XML, i have created an Example XML.
<MenuFile>
<Credits>
<Author>Callum Carmicheal</Author>
<Name>Sample</Name>
<Version>0.1</Version>
</Credits>
<InfoBar>
<Text>Created by ..., Enjoy</Text>
</InfoBar>
<Menu>
<Main>
<Header>
<Name>Main Menu</Name>
</Header>
<Item>
<Name>Enable Cheats</Name>
<Function>
<Menu>Mods</Menu>
</Function>
<Ignore>false</Ignore>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name> </Name>
<Function> </Function>
<Ignore>True</Ignore>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name></Name>
<Function></Function>
<Ignore>True</Ignore>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name></Name>
<Function></Function>
<Ignore>True</Ignore>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name></Name>
<Function></Function>
<Ignore>True</Ignore>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name></Name>
<Function></Function>
<Ignore>True</Ignore>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name></Name>
<Function></Function>
<Ignore>True</Ignore>
</Item>
</Main>
<Mods>
<Header>
<Name>Mods</Name>
</Header>
<Item>
<Name>Enable Cheats</Name>
<Function>
<Dvar>sv_cheats 1</Dvar>
</Function>
<Ignore>false</Ignore>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name></Name>
<Function></Function>
<Ignore>True</Ignore>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name></Name>
<Function></Function>
<Ignore>True</Ignore>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name></Name>
<Function></Function>
<Ignore>True</Ignore>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name></Name>
<Function></Function>
<Ignore>True</Ignore>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name></Name>
<Function></Function>
<Ignore>True</Ignore>
</Item>
</Mods>
</Menu>
</MenuFile>
This is the markup for the Menu's, i have created some c# Code
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
xml.LoadXml(System.IO.File.ReadAllText("menu.xml")); // suppose that myXmlString contains "<Names>...</Names>"
XmlNode credits_author = xml.SelectSingleNode("/MenuFile/Credits/Author");
XmlNode credits_name = xml.SelectSingleNode("/MenuFile/Credits/Name");
XmlNode credits_version = xml.SelectSingleNode("/MenuFile/Credits/Version");
Log("Credits(Author): " + credits_author.InnerText);
Log("Credits(Name): " + credits_name.InnerText);
Log("Credits(Version): " + credits_version.InnerText);
XmlNode InfoBar = xml.SelectSingleNode("/MenuFile/InfoBar/Text");
Log("");
Log("InfoBar Text: " + InfoBar.InnerText);
Log("");
Log("Menus");
XmlNodeList Menus = xml.SelectNodes("/MenuFile/Menu");
// This returns
// /MenuFile/Menu not /MenuFile/Menu/MainMenu....
// it should loop through MainMenu, Mods...
foreach (XmlNode MenuItem in Menus) {
Log("\t Menu: " + MenuItem.Name); // Main should me MainMenu or Mods
XmlNodeList Items = xml.SelectNodes("/MenuFile/Menu/" + MenuItem.Name);
foreach (XmlNode mi in Items) {
if (mi.Name == "Header") {
string xpath = FindXPath(mi);
string Header = xml.SelectSingleNode("/MenuFile/Menu/" + MenuItem.Name + "/Header/Name").InnerText;
Log("\t\t Header: " + Header);
}
else if (mi.Name == "Item") {
string Name = "";
string ignore = "";
}
}
}
}
But the problem is when trying to retrieve the MenuList/Menu's children nodes, it returns MenuList/Menu itself i have no clue.
I've tried debugging but the results are the same, can anyone see my error in this?

Your problem is that you are looping through the Menu nodes, not Main or Mods nodes:
XmlNodeList Menus = xml.SelectNodes("/MenuFile/Menu");
foreach (XmlNode MenuItem in Menus) {
will always return the outer Menu nodes.
To fetch the Main/Mods nodes use the following:
XmlNodeList menus = xml.SelectNodes("/MenuFile/Menu/*");
foreach (XmlNode menuItem in menus) {
Also, rather just fetch 'Header' and 'Items' nodes directly rather than performing an unnecessary "if":
XmlNode headerItem = menuItem.SelectSingleNode("Header");
...
XmlNodeList items = menuItem.SelectNodes("Item");
foreach (XmlNode item in items) {
...

XMLdocument Sort

I've figured out how to append nodes to my rss document in the right structyre. I now need to sort it in the pubDate order and then output to screen. Looking at the examples online, I've found lots of XDocument and Linq stuff but nothing with XmlDocument. Scratching my head whether to scrap what code I have and work out how to do it in XDocument with advice from here or continue with XMLDocument and figure out a way to sort.
With XMLDocument I've got the code working exactly as I want, just need my feed to be sorted in pubDate order when it spits it out to the screen. So I think I will stick with this for the timebeing. I've found this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555060 and an xslt someone posted in Stack Overflow, but I dont know how to call the "XmlHelperFunctions" from my code. Is XSLT the easiest option I have, or is there something easier out there?
This is my code:
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.LoadXml(rssFeed.ToString());
XmlNodeList nl = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("/rss/channel/item");
foreach (XmlNode xn in nl)
{
string title = xn["title"].InnerText;
string link = xn["link"].InnerText;
string desc = xn["description"].InnerText;
string auth = xn["author"].InnerText;
string pdate = xn["pubDate"].InnerText;
XmlElement itemnode = xmlDoc.CreateElement("item");
itemnode.InnerXml = "<title></title><link></link><description></description><author></author><pubDate></pubDate>";
itemnode["title"].InnerText = title;
itemnode["link"].InnerText = link;
itemnode["description"].InnerText = desc;
itemnode["author"].InnerText = auth;
itemnode["pubDate"].InnerText = pdate;
xmlDoc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("/rss/channel")[0].AppendChild(itemnode);
}
// Output to screen
xmlDoc.Save(Response.Output);
my rss feed
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>My RSS Feed</title>
<link>http://www.mylink.aspx</link>
<description>
</description>
<item>
<title>Top marks</title>
<link>http://www.mymarks.aspx</link>
<description>
<p>description field here</p>
</description>
<author>Viv</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 16 Aug 2012 12:10:54 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Costa Coffee</title>
<link>http://www.Costa.aspx</link>
<description>
<p>Costa Coffee have special offers.</p>
</description>
<author>Mike</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:55:53 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Celebrate success</title>
<link>http://www.Celebrate.aspx</link>
<description>
<p>Lets all celebrate </p>
</description>
<author>Viv</author>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2012 09:10:21 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

You can do this fairly quickly and painlessly using Linq to XML.
If you parse your XML using XElement.Parse(...) you can then use OrderBy or OrderByDescending functions and alter the content pretty easily.
Here is a simplified example:
XElement element = XElement.Parse(#"
<rss>
<channel>
<item title='something' pubDate='22/11/2012'/>
<item title='something2' pubDate='24/03/2012'/>
<item title='something3' pubDate='10/02/2010'/>
<item title='something4' pubDate='22/01/2011'/>
</channel>
</rss>");
var elements = element.Element("channel")
.Elements("item")
.OrderBy<XElement, DateTime>(e => DateTime.ParseExact(e.Attribute("pubDate").Value, "dd/MM/yyyy", null))
.Select(e => new XElement("item",
new XElement("title", e.Attribute("title").Value),
new XElement("pubDate", e.Attribute("pubDate").Value))); // Do transform here.
element.Element("channel").ReplaceAll(elements);
Console.Write(element.ToString());
The XML is not going to be the same as yours, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what you could do. You can just specify XElement and XAttribute objects as content for your new XML, this outputs the following:
<rss>
<channel>
<item>
<title>something3</title>
<pubDate>10/02/2010</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>something4</title>
<pubDate>22/01/2011</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>something2</title>
<pubDate>24/03/2012</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>something</title>
<pubDate>22/11/2012</pubDate>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
I hope this is useful.

XML Namespaces are confounding me

I have an XML document which is confounding me. I'd like to (to start) pull all of the document nodes (/database/document), but it only works if I remove all of the attributes on the database element. Specifically the xmlns tag causes an xpath query for /database/document to return nothing - remove it, and it works.
xmlns="http://www.lotus.com/dxl"
I take it this has to do with XML namespaces. What is it doing, and more to the point, how do I make it stop? I just want to parse the document for data.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<database xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.lotus.com/dxl xmlschemas/domino_7_0_3.xsd"
xmlns="http://www.lotus.com/dxl"
version="7.0"
maintenanceversion="3.0"
path="C:\LotusXML\test1.nsf"
title="test1">
<databaseinfo numberofdocuments="3">
<datamodified>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T142141,48-04</datetime>
</datamodified>
<designmodified>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T154850,91-04</datetime>
</designmodified>
</databaseinfo>
<document form="NameAddress">
<noteinfo noteid="8fa" unid="x" sequence="2">
<created>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T130308,71-04</datetime>
</created>
<modified>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T142049,36-04</datetime>
</modified>
<revised>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T142049,35-04</datetime>
</revised>
<lastaccessed>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T142049,35-04</datetime>
</lastaccessed>
<addedtofile>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T130321,57-04</datetime>
</addedtofile>
</noteinfo>
<updatedby>
<name>MOOSE</name>
</updatedby>
<revisions>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T130321,57-04</datetime>
</revisions>
<item name="Name">
<text>joe</text>
</item>
<item name="OtherName">
<text>dave</text>
</item>
<item name="Address">
<text>here at home</text>
</item>
<item name="PictureHere">
<richtext>
<pardef id="1" />
<par def="1">
</par>
<par def="1" />
</richtext>
</item>
</document>
<document form="NameAddress">
<noteinfo noteid="8fe" unid="x" sequence="2">
<created>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T130324,59-04</datetime>
</created>
<modified>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T142116,95-04</datetime>
</modified>
<revised>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T142116,94-04</datetime>
</revised>
<lastaccessed>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T142116,94-04</datetime>
</lastaccessed>
<addedtofile>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T130333,90-04</datetime>
</addedtofile>
</noteinfo>
<updatedby>
<name>MOOSE</name>
</updatedby>
<revisions>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T130333,90-04</datetime>
</revisions>
<item name="Name">
<text>fred</text>
</item>
<item name="OtherName">
<text>wilma</text>
</item>
<item name="Address">
<text>bedrock</text>
</item>
<item name="PictureHere">
<richtext>
<pardef id="1" />
<par def="1">
</par>
<par def="1" />
</richtext>
</item>
</document>
<document form="NameAddress">
<noteinfo noteid="902" unid="x" sequence="2">
<created>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T130337,09-04</datetime>
</created>
<modified>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T142141,48-04</datetime>
</modified>
<revised>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T142141,47-04</datetime>
</revised>
<lastaccessed>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T142141,47-04</datetime>
</lastaccessed>
<addedtofile>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T130350,20-04</datetime>
</addedtofile>
</noteinfo>
<updatedby>
<name>MOOSE</name>
</updatedby>
<revisions>
<datetime dst="true">20090812T130350,20-04</datetime>
</revisions>
<item name="Name">
<text>julie</text>
</item>
<item name="OtherName">
<text>mccarthy</text>
</item>
<item name="Address">
<text>the pen</text>
</item>
<item name="PictureHere">
<richtext>
<pardef id="1" />
<par def="1">
</par>
<par def="1" />
</richtext>
</item>
</document>
</database>

The xmlns="http://www.lotus.com/dxl" sets a default namespace for contained nodes. It means that /database/document is really /{http://www.lotus.com/dxl}:database/{http://www.lotus.com/dxl}:document. Your XPath query will need to include the namespace:
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load(fileName);
XmlNamespaceManager ns = new XmlNamespaceManager(doc.NameTable);
ns.AddNamespace("tns", "http://www.lotus.com/dxl");
var documents = doc.SelectNodes("/tns:database/tns:document", ns);

When there is an XML namespace defined, each element needs to preceded by it for it to be correctly recognized.
If you were to use LINQ to XML to read in this data it would look something like this:
XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load("file.xml");
XNamespace ns = "http://www.lotus.com/dxl";
var documents = xdoc.Descendants(ns + "document");
XML namespaces are similar in concept to C# namespaces (or any other language that supports it). If you define a class inside a namespace, you wouldn't be able to access it without first specifying the namespace (this is what using statements do for you).

You need to specify the element by their full name, including the namespace. The easy way to do this is to define the appropriate XNamespace and prepend it to the element name.
XDocument myDoc;
XNamespace ns = "http://www.lotus.com/dxl";
XElement myElem = myDoc.Element(ns + "ElementName");
See MSDN for more information.