I am building an MVC App in C# and am currently working on a method to load an xml document into a file stream and iterate through the nodes and save the data into my model objects.
It is all working fine but I am hard coding the relationship between the object property and the xml attribute name. I was wondering if there is a smart way to associated the two so I can run it all through a for each loop.
This is the code I have currently and it works, but I would like to make it more generic
OLD CODE
var xmlDoc = LoadXmlFileIntoStream("WSAPayCode.xml");
var elementCollection = ExtractDescendants(xmlDoc, "WSAPayCode");
foreach (var element in elementCollection)
{
var abbreviationChar = element.Attribute("AbbreviationChar");
var payCode = new PayCode
{
Name = element.Attribute("Name").Value,
AutoResolved = element.Attribute("AutoResolved").Value.IsBool(),
EditExcuseAbsn = element.Attribute("EditExcuseAbsn").Value.IsBool(),
PersistPceSw = element.Attribute("PersistPceSw").Value.IsBool(),
AbbreviationChar = (string)element.Attribute("AbbreviationChar"),
EditCntToCdotSw = element.Attribute("EditCntToCdotSw").Value.IsBool(),
EditAffShfTotal = element.Attribute("EditAffShfTotal").Value.IsBool(),
EditCntToOt = element.Attribute("EditCntToOt").Value.IsBool(),
PayUsingWeightedAverageRate = element.Attribute("PayUsingWeightedAverageRate").Value.IsBool(),
RequiresMgrApproval = element.Attribute("RequiresMgrApproval").Value.IsBool(),
WeightedAverageRateIsComputedDaily =
element.Attribute("WeightedAverageRateIsComputedDaily").Value.IsBool(),
JustAutoResExpAsWorked = element.Attribute("JustAutoResExpAsWorked").Value.IsBool(),
AssociatedDurationPayCodeName = element.Attribute("AssociatedDurationPayCodeName").Value,
WeightedAverageRateContributionsUseAnAdjustedRate =
element.Attribute("WeightedAverageRateContributionsUseAnAdjustedRate").Value.IsBool(),
ScheduleHoursType = element.Attribute("ScheduleHoursType").Value,
CheckAvlbltySw = element.Attribute("CheckAvlbltySw").Value.IsBool(),
WageAddition = (string)element.Attribute("WageAddition"),
VisibleInMainArea = element.Attribute("VisibleInMainArea").Value.IsBool(),
IsMoneyCategory = element.Attribute("IsMoneyCategory").Value.IsBool(),
AmountType = element.Attribute("AmountType").Value,
VisibleInReport = element.Attribute("VisibleInReport").Value.IsBool(),
ContributesToWeightedAverageRates =
element.Attribute("ContributesToWeightedAverageRates").Value.IsBool(),
UnjustAutoResExpAsWorked = (bool)element.Attribute("UnjustAutoResExpAsWorked"),
WageMultiply = (string)element.Attribute("WageMultiply"),
Type = (string)element.Attribute("Type"),
VisibleToUser = (bool)element.Attribute("VisibleToUser"),
CustomerId = _customerId,
};
_db.PayCodes.Add(payCode);
_db.SaveChanges();
}
New Code
I have written some code to interate through the xml file and pull out the names of the attributes - Code Below (Also works)
var xmlDoc = LoadXmlFileIntoStream("WSAPayCode.xml");
var elementCollection = ExtractDescendants(xmlDoc, "WSAPayCode");
var nodeAttributes = xmlDoc.Descendants("WSAPayCode").Select(x => x.Attributes());
foreach (var attrs in nodeAttributes)
{
var _attribute = "";
foreach (var attr in attrs)
{
// This successfully reads through each attribute and pulls out the name of the attribut
_attribute = attr.Name.ToString();
}
}
Problem I would like to solve
What I would like to do now is instantiate an object and iterate through the attribute names and save the values to the corresponding property in the object. i.e. replace the OLD code with something that dynamically assigns the values to the object properties.
I would check into using the XML Serializers / Deserializers. On your class, you have provide attributes as to whether the property is an element or attribute, and then let it handle the rest of it for you.
You could set the attributes to match what the XML document is providing, such as if the name is an element, or attribute, etc.
For example:
[XmlRoot("PayCode")]
public class PayCode
{
[XmlElement("Name")
public string Name { get; set;}
....
}
Then, to deserialize to your object:
XmlSerializer serializer = new
XmlSerializer(typeof(PayCode));
FileStream fs = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open);
XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(fs);
PayCode payCode = (PayCode)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
I'm having problem deserializing previously serialized XML.
My class is generated from .xsd by xsd.exe utility. I have no influence on the structure of .xsd as it was issued by government, and used to standardize communication...
The problem is, when I create an object, set some properties on it, then serialize it using XmlSerializer, and then deserialize it back, I do not get the same "contents" as I started with. Some of the elements from XML deserialize in "Any" property instead of properties from which these elements were serialized in a first place.
Perhaps a clumsy explanation, but I've created a sample project that reproduces my issue.
Sample project can be found here.
Edit:
Ok, here is some sample code. Unfortunately I can't paste everything here, because file generated by xsd.exe is over 4000 lines long. But everything required is in linked file.
My test console app:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Pismeno pismeno = new Pismeno();
#region Build sample content
pismeno.Sadrzaj = new SadrzajTip();
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.LoadXml("<SomeXml xmlns=\"http://some.namespace.com/\">Some content goes here</SomeXml>");
pismeno.Sadrzaj.Item = xmlDoc.DocumentElement;
pismeno.Prilog = new PismenoPrilog[1];
pismeno.Prilog[0] = new PismenoPrilog();
pismeno.Prilog[0].VrijemeNastanka = DateTime.Now.ToString("s");
XmlDocument xmlTitle = new XmlDocument();
xmlTitle.LoadXml("<Title xmlns=\"http://some.namespace.com/\">Test title 1</Title>");
pismeno.Prilog[0].Any = new XmlElement[1];
pismeno.Prilog[0].Any[0] = xmlTitle.DocumentElement;
pismeno.Prilog[0].Sadrzaj = new SadrzajTip();
EAdresaTip eat = new EAdresaTip();
eat.URL = "http://www.example.com/testfile.doc";
pismeno.Prilog[0].Sadrzaj.Item = eat;
#endregion
// Serialize object, and then deserialize it again
string pismenoSer = Serialize(pismeno);
Pismeno pismeno2 = Deserialize<Pismeno>(pismenoSer);
// Objects to compare. "source" has source.Sadrzaj and source.Prilog properties set
// "shouldBeTheSameAsSource" has shouldBeTheSameAsSource.Any property set
Pismeno source = pismeno;
Pismeno shouldBeTheSameAsSource = pismeno2;
}
public static string Serialize(object o)
{
string ret = null;
using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
{
XmlWriter xw = new XmlTextWriter(stream, Encoding.UTF8) { Formatting = Formatting.Indented };
new XmlSerializer(o.GetType()).Serialize(xw, o);
stream.Flush();
stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
ret = (new StreamReader(stream, Encoding.UTF8)).ReadToEnd();
}
return ret;
}
public static T Deserialize<T>(string xml)
{
return (T)new XmlSerializer(typeof(T)).Deserialize(XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(xml)));
}
I started to use Json.NET to convert a string in JSON format to object or viceversa. I am not sure in the Json.NET framework, is it possible to convert a string in JSON to XML format and viceversa?
Yes. Using the JsonConvert class which contains helper methods for this precise purpose:
// To convert an XML node contained in string xml into a JSON string
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(xml);
string jsonText = JsonConvert.SerializeXmlNode(doc);
// To convert JSON text contained in string json into an XML node
XmlDocument doc = JsonConvert.DeserializeXmlNode(json);
Documentation here: Converting between JSON and XML with Json.NET
Yes, you can do it (I do) but Be aware of some paradoxes when converting, and handle appropriately. You cannot automatically conform to all interface possibilities, and there is limited built-in support in controlling the conversion- many JSON structures and values cannot automatically be converted both ways. Keep in mind I am using the default settings with Newtonsoft JSON library and MS XML library, so your mileage may vary:
XML -> JSON
All data becomes string data (for example you will always get "false" not false or "0" not 0) Obviously JavaScript treats these differently in certain cases.
Children elements can become nested-object {} OR nested-array [ {} {} ...] depending if there is only one or more than one XML child-element. You would consume these two differently in JavaScript, etc. Different examples of XML conforming to the same schema can produce actually different JSON structures this way. You can add the attribute json:Array='true' to your element to workaround this in some (but not necessarily all) cases.
Your XML must be fairly well-formed, I have noticed it doesn't need to perfectly conform to W3C standard, but 1. you must have a root element and 2. you cannot start element names with numbers are two of the enforced XML standards I have found when using Newtonsoft and MS libraries.
In older versions, Blank elements do not convert to JSON. They are ignored. A blank element does not become "element":null
A new update changes how null can be handled (Thanks to Jon Story for pointing it out): https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/T_Newtonsoft_Json_NullValueHandling.htm
JSON -> XML
You need a top level object that will convert to a root XML element or the parser will fail.
Your object names cannot start with a number, as they cannot be converted to elements (XML is technically even more strict than this) but I can 'get away' with breaking some of the other element naming rules.
Please feel free to mention any other issues you have noticed, I have developed my own custom routines for preparing and cleaning the strings as I convert back and forth. Your situation may or may not call for prep/cleanup. As StaxMan mentions, your situation may actually require that you convert between objects...this could entail appropriate interfaces and a bunch of case statements/etc to handle the caveats I mention above.
You can do these conversions also with the .NET Framework:
JSON to XML: by using System.Runtime.Serialization.Json
var xml = XDocument.Load(JsonReaderWriterFactory.CreateJsonReader(
Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(jsonString), new XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas()));
XML to JSON: by using System.Web.Script.Serialization
var json = new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(GetXmlData(XElement.Parse(xmlString)));
private static Dictionary<string, object> GetXmlData(XElement xml)
{
var attr = xml.Attributes().ToDictionary(d => d.Name.LocalName, d => (object)d.Value);
if (xml.HasElements) attr.Add("_value", xml.Elements().Select(e => GetXmlData(e)));
else if (!xml.IsEmpty) attr.Add("_value", xml.Value);
return new Dictionary<string, object> { { xml.Name.LocalName, attr } };
}
I'm not sure there is point in such conversion (yes, many do it, but mostly to force a square peg through round hole) -- there is structural impedance mismatch, and conversion is lossy. So I would recommend against such format-to-format transformations.
But if you do it, first convert from json to object, then from object to xml (and vice versa for reverse direction). Doing direct transformation leads to ugly output, loss of information, or possibly both.
Thanks for David Brown's answer. In my case of JSON.Net 3.5, the convert methods are under the JsonConvert static class:
XmlNode myXmlNode = JsonConvert.DeserializeXmlNode(myJsonString); // is node not note
// or .DeserilizeXmlNode(myJsonString, "root"); // if myJsonString does not have a root
string jsonString = JsonConvert.SerializeXmlNode(myXmlNode);
I searched for a long time to find alternative code to the accepted solution in the hopes of not using an external assembly/project. I came up with the following thanks to the source code of the DynamicJson project:
public XmlDocument JsonToXML(string json)
{
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
using (var reader = JsonReaderWriterFactory.CreateJsonReader(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(json), XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas.Max))
{
XElement xml = XElement.Load(reader);
doc.LoadXml(xml.ToString());
}
return doc;
}
Note: I wanted an XmlDocument rather than an XElement for xPath purposes.
Also, this code obviously only goes from JSON to XML, there are various ways to do the opposite.
Here is the full c# code to convert xml to json
public static class JSon
{
public static string XmlToJSON(string xml)
{
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(xml);
return XmlToJSON(doc);
}
public static string XmlToJSON(XmlDocument xmlDoc)
{
StringBuilder sbJSON = new StringBuilder();
sbJSON.Append("{ ");
XmlToJSONnode(sbJSON, xmlDoc.DocumentElement, true);
sbJSON.Append("}");
return sbJSON.ToString();
}
// XmlToJSONnode: Output an XmlElement, possibly as part of a higher array
private static void XmlToJSONnode(StringBuilder sbJSON, XmlElement node, bool showNodeName)
{
if (showNodeName)
sbJSON.Append("\"" + SafeJSON(node.Name) + "\": ");
sbJSON.Append("{");
// Build a sorted list of key-value pairs
// where key is case-sensitive nodeName
// value is an ArrayList of string or XmlElement
// so that we know whether the nodeName is an array or not.
SortedList<string, object> childNodeNames = new SortedList<string, object>();
// Add in all node attributes
if (node.Attributes != null)
foreach (XmlAttribute attr in node.Attributes)
StoreChildNode(childNodeNames, attr.Name, attr.InnerText);
// Add in all nodes
foreach (XmlNode cnode in node.ChildNodes)
{
if (cnode is XmlText)
StoreChildNode(childNodeNames, "value", cnode.InnerText);
else if (cnode is XmlElement)
StoreChildNode(childNodeNames, cnode.Name, cnode);
}
// Now output all stored info
foreach (string childname in childNodeNames.Keys)
{
List<object> alChild = (List<object>)childNodeNames[childname];
if (alChild.Count == 1)
OutputNode(childname, alChild[0], sbJSON, true);
else
{
sbJSON.Append(" \"" + SafeJSON(childname) + "\": [ ");
foreach (object Child in alChild)
OutputNode(childname, Child, sbJSON, false);
sbJSON.Remove(sbJSON.Length - 2, 2);
sbJSON.Append(" ], ");
}
}
sbJSON.Remove(sbJSON.Length - 2, 2);
sbJSON.Append(" }");
}
// StoreChildNode: Store data associated with each nodeName
// so that we know whether the nodeName is an array or not.
private static void StoreChildNode(SortedList<string, object> childNodeNames, string nodeName, object nodeValue)
{
// Pre-process contraction of XmlElement-s
if (nodeValue is XmlElement)
{
// Convert <aa></aa> into "aa":null
// <aa>xx</aa> into "aa":"xx"
XmlNode cnode = (XmlNode)nodeValue;
if (cnode.Attributes.Count == 0)
{
XmlNodeList children = cnode.ChildNodes;
if (children.Count == 0)
nodeValue = null;
else if (children.Count == 1 && (children[0] is XmlText))
nodeValue = ((XmlText)(children[0])).InnerText;
}
}
// Add nodeValue to ArrayList associated with each nodeName
// If nodeName doesn't exist then add it
List<object> ValuesAL;
if (childNodeNames.ContainsKey(nodeName))
{
ValuesAL = (List<object>)childNodeNames[nodeName];
}
else
{
ValuesAL = new List<object>();
childNodeNames[nodeName] = ValuesAL;
}
ValuesAL.Add(nodeValue);
}
private static void OutputNode(string childname, object alChild, StringBuilder sbJSON, bool showNodeName)
{
if (alChild == null)
{
if (showNodeName)
sbJSON.Append("\"" + SafeJSON(childname) + "\": ");
sbJSON.Append("null");
}
else if (alChild is string)
{
if (showNodeName)
sbJSON.Append("\"" + SafeJSON(childname) + "\": ");
string sChild = (string)alChild;
sChild = sChild.Trim();
sbJSON.Append("\"" + SafeJSON(sChild) + "\"");
}
else
XmlToJSONnode(sbJSON, (XmlElement)alChild, showNodeName);
sbJSON.Append(", ");
}
// Make a string safe for JSON
private static string SafeJSON(string sIn)
{
StringBuilder sbOut = new StringBuilder(sIn.Length);
foreach (char ch in sIn)
{
if (Char.IsControl(ch) || ch == '\'')
{
int ich = (int)ch;
sbOut.Append(#"\u" + ich.ToString("x4"));
continue;
}
else if (ch == '\"' || ch == '\\' || ch == '/')
{
sbOut.Append('\\');
}
sbOut.Append(ch);
}
return sbOut.ToString();
}
}
To convert a given XML string to JSON, simply call XmlToJSON() function as below.
string xml = "<menu id=\"file\" value=\"File\"> " +
"<popup>" +
"<menuitem value=\"New\" onclick=\"CreateNewDoc()\" />" +
"<menuitem value=\"Open\" onclick=\"OpenDoc()\" />" +
"<menuitem value=\"Close\" onclick=\"CloseDoc()\" />" +
"</popup>" +
"</menu>";
string json = JSON.XmlToJSON(xml);
// json = { "menu": {"id": "file", "popup": { "menuitem": [ {"onclick": "CreateNewDoc()", "value": "New" }, {"onclick": "OpenDoc()", "value": "Open" }, {"onclick": "CloseDoc()", "value": "Close" } ] }, "value": "File" }}
For convert JSON string to XML try this:
public string JsonToXML(string json)
{
XDocument xmlDoc = new XDocument(new XDeclaration("1.0", "utf-8", ""));
XElement root = new XElement("Root");
root.Name = "Result";
var dataTable = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DataTable>(json);
root.Add(
from row in dataTable.AsEnumerable()
select new XElement("Record",
from column in dataTable.Columns.Cast<DataColumn>()
select new XElement(column.ColumnName, row[column])
)
);
xmlDoc.Add(root);
return xmlDoc.ToString();
}
For convert XML to JSON try this:
public string XmlToJson(string xml)
{
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(xml);
string jsonText = JsonConvert.SerializeXmlNode(doc);
return jsonText;
}
Here is a simple snippet that converts a XmlNode (recursively) into a hashtable, and groups multiple instances of the same child into an array (as an ArrayList).
The Hashtable is usually accepted to convert into JSON by most of the JSON libraries.
protected object convert(XmlNode root){
Hashtable obj = new Hashtable();
for(int i=0,n=root.ChildNodes.Count;i<n;i++){
object result = null;
XmlNode current = root.ChildNodes.Item(i);
if(current.NodeType != XmlNodeType.Text)
result = convert(current);
else{
int resultInt;
double resultFloat;
bool resultBoolean;
if(Int32.TryParse(current.Value, out resultInt)) return resultInt;
if(Double.TryParse(current.Value, out resultFloat)) return resultFloat;
if(Boolean.TryParse(current.Value, out resultBoolean)) return resultBoolean;
return current.Value;
}
if(obj[current.Name] == null)
obj[current.Name] = result;
else if(obj[current.Name].GetType().Equals(typeof(ArrayList)))
((ArrayList)obj[current.Name]).Add(result);
else{
ArrayList collision = new ArrayList();
collision.Add(obj[current.Name]);
collision.Add(result);
obj[current.Name] = collision;
}
}
return obj;
}
Try this function. I just wrote it and haven't had much of a chance to test it, but my preliminary tests are promising.
public static XmlDocument JsonToXml(string json)
{
XmlNode newNode = null;
XmlNode appendToNode = null;
XmlDocument returnXmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
returnXmlDoc.LoadXml("<Document />");
XmlNode rootNode = returnXmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("Document");
appendToNode = rootNode;
string[] arrElementData;
string[] arrElements = json.Split('\r');
foreach (string element in arrElements)
{
string processElement = element.Replace("\r", "").Replace("\n", "").Replace("\t", "").Trim();
if ((processElement.IndexOf("}") > -1 || processElement.IndexOf("]") > -1) && appendToNode != rootNode)
{
appendToNode = appendToNode.ParentNode;
}
else if (processElement.IndexOf("[") > -1)
{
processElement = processElement.Replace(":", "").Replace("[", "").Replace("\"", "").Trim();
newNode = returnXmlDoc.CreateElement(processElement);
appendToNode.AppendChild(newNode);
appendToNode = newNode;
}
else if (processElement.IndexOf("{") > -1 && processElement.IndexOf(":") > -1)
{
processElement = processElement.Replace(":", "").Replace("{", "").Replace("\"", "").Trim();
newNode = returnXmlDoc.CreateElement(processElement);
appendToNode.AppendChild(newNode);
appendToNode = newNode;
}
else
{
if (processElement.IndexOf(":") > -1)
{
arrElementData = processElement.Replace(": \"", ":").Replace("\",", "").Replace("\"", "").Split(':');
newNode = returnXmlDoc.CreateElement(arrElementData[0]);
for (int i = 1; i < arrElementData.Length; i++)
{
newNode.InnerText += arrElementData[i];
}
appendToNode.AppendChild(newNode);
}
}
}
return returnXmlDoc;
}
I did like David Brown said but I got the following exception.
$exception {"There are multiple root elements. Line , position ."} System.Xml.XmlException
One solution would be to modify the XML file with a root element but that is not always necessary and for an XML stream it might not be possible either. My solution below:
var path = Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, #"..\..\App_Data"));
var directoryInfo = new DirectoryInfo(path);
var fileInfos = directoryInfo.GetFiles("*.xml");
foreach (var fileInfo in fileInfos)
{
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
XmlReaderSettings settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
settings.ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Fragment;
using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(fileInfo.FullName, settings))
{
while (reader.Read())
{
if (reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element)
{
var node = doc.ReadNode(reader);
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeXmlNode(node);
}
}
}
}
Example XML that generates the error:
<parent>
<child>
Text
</child>
</parent>
<parent>
<child>
<grandchild>
Text
</grandchild>
<grandchild>
Text
</grandchild>
</child>
<child>
Text
</child>
</parent>
I have used the below methods to convert the JSON to XML
List <Item> items;
public void LoadJsonAndReadToXML() {
using(StreamReader r = new StreamReader(# "E:\Json\overiddenhotelranks.json")) {
string json = r.ReadToEnd();
items = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject <List<Item>> (json);
ReadToXML();
}
}
And
public void ReadToXML() {
try {
var xEle = new XElement("Items",
from item in items select new XElement("Item",
new XElement("mhid", item.mhid),
new XElement("hotelName", item.hotelName),
new XElement("destination", item.destination),
new XElement("destinationID", item.destinationID),
new XElement("rank", item.rank),
new XElement("toDisplayOnFod", item.toDisplayOnFod),
new XElement("comment", item.comment),
new XElement("Destinationcode", item.Destinationcode),
new XElement("LoadDate", item.LoadDate)
));
xEle.Save("E:\\employees.xml");
Console.WriteLine("Converted to XML");
} catch (Exception ex) {
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
I have used the class named Item to represent the elements
public class Item {
public int mhid { get; set; }
public string hotelName { get; set; }
public string destination { get; set; }
public int destinationID { get; set; }
public int rank { get; set; }
public int toDisplayOnFod { get; set; }
public string comment { get; set; }
public string Destinationcode { get; set; }
public string LoadDate { get; set; }
}
It works....
Cinchoo ETL - an open source library available to do the conversion of Xml to JSON easily with few lines of code
Xml -> JSON:
using (var p = new ChoXmlReader("sample.xml"))
{
using (var w = new ChoJSONWriter("sample.json"))
{
w.Write(p);
}
}
JSON -> Xml:
using (var p = new ChoJsonReader("sample.json"))
{
using (var w = new ChoXmlWriter("sample.xml"))
{
w.Write(p);
}
}
Sample fiddle: https://dotnetfiddle.net/enUJKu
Checkout CodeProject articles for some additional help.
Disclaimer: I'm the author of this library.
Here's an example of how to convert JSON to XML using .NET built-in libraries (instead of 3rd party libraries like Newtonsoft).
using System.Text.Json;
using System.Text.Json.Nodes;
using System.Xml.Linq;
XDocument xmlDoc = jsonToXml(jsonObj);
private XDocument jsonToXml(JsonObject obj)
{
var xmlDoc = new XDocument();
var root = new XElement("Root");
xmlDoc.Add(root);
foreach (var prop in obj)
{
var xElement = new XElement(prop.Key);
xElement.Value = prop.Value.ToString();
root.Add(xElement);
}
return xmlDoc;
}