Saving XDocument to file in PCL C# - c#

I'm working within my PCL library and need to serialise a class and output to a file. I'm very short on space, so don't have the space for PCLStorage.
Currently I'm using this for the serialisation. IFilePath returns a file path from the non-PCL part.
IFilePath FilePath;
public void SerializeObject<T>(T serializableObject, string fileName)
{
if (serializableObject == null) { return; }
try
{
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
var xmlDocument = new XDocument();
using (var writer = xmlDocument.CreateWriter())
{
var serialize = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(T));
serialize.WriteObject(writer, serializableObject);
xmlDocument.Save(ms, SaveOptions.None);
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//Log exception here
}
}
When I try to save, nothing is showing. I have a feeling it's because I'm not outputting the stream to a file, but I'm at a loss as how to do this.

You are trying to save to a file, an action which is specific for each platform.
PCLStorage is implementing this functionality for each platform and this is what you will have to do also if you can"t use it.
In you case what you have to do is to create the stream (in each platform) in your non pcl code and then pass it to your function which will look like this:
public void SerializeObject<T>(T serializableObject, Stream fileStream)
{
if (serializableObject == null) { return; }
try
{
var xmlDocument = new XDocument();
using (var writer = xmlDocument.CreateWriter())
{
var serialize = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(T));
serialize.WriteObject(writer, serializableObject);
xmlDocument.Save(fileStream, SaveOptions.None);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//Log exception here
}
}
more on pcl here.

Problem is that your variable ms in using (var ms = new MemoryStream()) is empty and does not point to any file location of which MemoryStream does not receive a filepath as argument. I propose you use a StreamWriter instead and pass the your FileStream to it. Example
Use your fileName to create a FileStream which inherits from the Stream class then replace the Memory stream with the newly created filestream like this.
using(FileStream stream = File.OpenWrite(fileName))
{
var xmlDocument = new XDocument();
using (var writer = xmlDocument.CreateWriter())
{
var serialize = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(T));
serialize.WriteObject(writer, serializableObject);
xmlDocument.Save(stream, SaveOptions.None);
}
}
Hope this helps.

Related

Writing to Filestream and copying to MemoryStream

I want to overwrite or create an xml file on disk, and return the xml from the function. I figured I could do this by copying from FileStream to MemoryStream. But I end up appending a new xml document to the same file, instead of creating a new file each time.
What am I doing wrong? If I remove the copying, everything works fine.
public static string CreateAndSave(IEnumerable<OrderPage> orderPages, string filePath)
{
if (orderPages == null || !orderPages.Any())
{
return string.Empty;
}
var xmlBuilder = new StringBuilder();
var writerSettings = new XmlWriterSettings
{
Indent = true,
Encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding("ISO-8859-1"),
CheckCharacters = false,
ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Document
};
using (var fs = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
try
{
XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(fs, writerSettings);
xmlWriter.WriteStartElement("PRINT_JOB");
WriteXmlAttribute(xmlWriter, "TYPE", "Order Confirmations");
foreach (var page in orderPages)
{
xmlWriter.WriteStartElement("PAGE");
WriteXmlAttribute(xmlWriter, "FORM_TYPE", page.OrderType);
var outBound = page.Orders.SingleOrDefault(x => x.FlightInfo.Direction == FlightDirection.Outbound);
var homeBound = page.Orders.SingleOrDefault(x => x.FlightInfo.Direction == FlightDirection.Homebound);
WriteXmlOrder(xmlWriter, outBound, page.ContailDetails, page.UserId, page.PrintType, FlightDirection.Outbound);
WriteXmlOrder(xmlWriter, homeBound, page.ContailDetails, page.UserId, page.PrintType, FlightDirection.Homebound);
xmlWriter.WriteEndElement();
}
xmlWriter.WriteFullEndElement();
MemoryStream destination = new MemoryStream();
fs.CopyTo(destination);
Log.Progress("Xml string length: {0}", destination.Length);
xmlBuilder.Append(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(destination.ToArray()));
destination.Flush();
destination.Close();
xmlWriter.Flush();
xmlWriter.Close();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Log.Warning(ex, "Unhandled exception occured during create of xml. {0}", ex.Message);
throw;
}
fs.Flush();
fs.Close();
}
return xmlBuilder.ToString();
}
Cheers
Jens
FileMode.OpenOrCreate is causing the file contents to be overwritten without shortening, leaving any 'trailing' data from previous runs. If FileMode.Create is used the file will be truncated first. However, to read back the contents you just wrote you will need to use Seek to reset the file pointer.
Also, flush the XmlWriter before copying from the underlying stream.
See also the question Simultaneous Read Write a file in C Sharp (3817477).
The following test program seems to do what you want (less your own logging and Order details).
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace ReadWriteTest
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string filePath = Path.Combine(
Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal),
"Test.xml");
string result = CreateAndSave(new string[] { "Hello", "World", "!" }, filePath);
Console.WriteLine("============== FIRST PASS ==============");
Console.WriteLine(result);
result = CreateAndSave(new string[] { "Hello", "World", "AGAIN", "!" }, filePath);
Console.WriteLine("============== SECOND PASS ==============");
Console.WriteLine(result);
Console.ReadLine();
}
public static string CreateAndSave(IEnumerable<string> orderPages, string filePath)
{
if (orderPages == null || !orderPages.Any())
{
return string.Empty;
}
var xmlBuilder = new StringBuilder();
var writerSettings = new XmlWriterSettings
{
Indent = true,
Encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding("ISO-8859-1"),
CheckCharacters = false,
ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Document
};
using (var fs = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
try
{
XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(fs, writerSettings);
xmlWriter.WriteStartElement("PRINT_JOB");
foreach (var page in orderPages)
{
xmlWriter.WriteElementString("PAGE", page);
}
xmlWriter.WriteFullEndElement();
xmlWriter.Flush(); // Flush from xmlWriter to fs
xmlWriter.Close();
fs.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin); // Go back to read from the begining
MemoryStream destination = new MemoryStream();
fs.CopyTo(destination);
xmlBuilder.Append(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(destination.ToArray()));
destination.Flush();
destination.Close();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw;
}
fs.Flush();
fs.Close();
}
return xmlBuilder.ToString();
}
}
}
For the optimizers out there, the StringBuilder was unnecessary because the string is formed whole and the MemoryStream can be avoided by just wrapping fs in a StreamReader. This would make the code as follows.
public static string CreateAndSave(IEnumerable<string> orderPages, string filePath)
{
if (orderPages == null || !orderPages.Any())
{
return string.Empty;
}
string result;
var writerSettings = new XmlWriterSettings
{
Indent = true,
Encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding("ISO-8859-1"),
CheckCharacters = false,
ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Document
};
using (var fs = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
try
{
XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(fs, writerSettings);
xmlWriter.WriteStartElement("PRINT_JOB");
foreach (var page in orderPages)
{
xmlWriter.WriteElementString("PAGE", page);
}
xmlWriter.WriteFullEndElement();
xmlWriter.Close(); // Flush from xmlWriter to fs
fs.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin); // Go back to read from the begining
var reader = new StreamReader(fs, writerSettings.Encoding);
result = reader.ReadToEnd();
// reader.Close(); // This would just flush/close fs early(which would be OK)
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw;
}
}
return result;
}
I know I'm late, but there seems to be a simpler solution. You want your function to generate xml, write it to a file and return the generated xml. Apparently allocating a string cannot be avoided (because you want it to be returned), same for writing to a file. But reading from a file (as in your and SensorSmith's solutions) can easily be avoided by simply "swapping" the operations - generate xml string and write it to a file. Like this:
var output = new StringBuilder();
var writerSettings = new XmlWriterSettings { /* your settings ... */ };
using (var xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(output, writerSettings))
{
// Your xml generation code using the writer
// ...
// You don't need to flush the writer, it will be done automatically
}
// Here the output variable contains the xml, let's take it...
var xml = output.ToString();
// write it to a file...
File.WriteAllText(filePath, xml);
// and we are done :-)
return xml;
IMPORTANT UPDATE: It turns out that the XmlWriter.Create(StringBuider, XmlWriterSettings) overload ignores the Encoding from the settings and always uses "utf-16", so don't use this method if you need other encoding.

Read the content of an xml file within a zip package

I am required to read the contents of an .xml file using the Stream (Here the xml file is existing with in the zip package). Here in the below code, I need to get the file path at runtime (here I have hardcoded the path for reference). Please let me know how to read the file path at run time.
I have tried to use string s =entry.FullName.ToString(); but get the error "Could not find the Path". I have also tried to hard code the path as shown below. however get the same FileNotFound error.
string metaDataContents;
using (var zipStream = new FileStream(#"C:\OB10LinuxShare\TEST1\Temp" + "\\"+zipFileName+".zip", FileMode.Open))
using (var archive = new ZipArchive(zipStream, ZipArchiveMode.Read))
{
foreach (var entry in archive.Entries)
{
if (entry.Name.EndsWith(".xml"))
{
FileInfo metadataFileInfo = new FileInfo(entry.Name);
string metadataFileName = metadataFileInfo.Name.Replace(metadataFileInfo.Extension, String.Empty);
if (String.Compare(zipFileName, metadataFileName, true) == 0)
{
using (var stream = entry.Open())
using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream))
{
metaDataContents = reader.ReadToEnd();
clientProcessLogWriter.WriteToLog(LogWriter.LogLevel.DEBUG, "metaDataContents : " + metaDataContents);
}
}
}
}
}
I have also tried to get the contents of the .xml file using the Stream object as shown below. But here I get the error "Stream was not readable".
Stream metaDataStream = null;
string metaDataContent = string.Empty;
using (Stream stream = entry.Open())
{
metaDataStream = stream;
}
using (var reader = new StreamReader(metaDataStream))
{
metaDataContent = reader.ReadToEnd();
}
Kindly suggest, how to read the contents of the xml with in a zip file using Stream and StreamReader by specifying the file path at run time
Your section code snippet is failing because when you reach the end of the first using statement:
using (Stream stream = entry.Open())
{
metaDataStream = stream;
}
... the stream will be disposed. That's the point of a using statment. You should be fine with this sort of code, but load the XML file while the stream is open:
XDocument doc;
using (Stream stream = entry.Open())
{
doc = XDocument.Load(stream);
}
That's to load it as XML... if you really just want the text, you could use:
string text;
using (Stream stream = entry.Open())
{
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream))
{
text = reader.ReadToEnd();
}
}
Again, note how this is reading before it hits the end of either using statement.
Here is a sample of how to read a zip file using .net 4.5
private void readZipFile(String filePath)
{
String fileContents = "";
try
{
if (System.IO.File.Exists(filePath))
{
System.IO.Compression.ZipArchive apcZipFile = System.IO.Compression.ZipFile.Open(filePath, System.IO.Compression.ZipArchiveMode.Read);
foreach (System.IO.Compression.ZipArchiveEntry entry in apcZipFile.Entries)
{
if (entry.Name.ToUpper().EndsWith(".XML"))
{
System.IO.Compression.ZipArchiveEntry zipEntry = apcZipFile.GetEntry(entry.Name);
using (System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(zipEntry.Open()))
{
//read the contents into a string
fileContents = sr.ReadToEnd();
}
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
throw;
}
}

How to Deserialize using binary Deserialization from file [duplicate]

This question already has an answer here:
How to Deserialize using binary Deserialization from file text file
(1 answer)
Closed 8 years ago.
public static void SaveRestaurantList(List<Restaurant> restaurantList)
{
FileStream fs = new FileStream("Restaurant.txt", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
for (int i = 0; i < restaurantList.Count; i++)
{
Restaurant r = new Restaurant();
r = (Restaurant)restaurantList[i];
bf.Serialize(fs, r);
fs.Flush();
}
fs.Close();
Console.WriteLine("\n\n\t\t File Get Serialized.., \n\t\t Close the Promt and Check in Application Debug Folder..!!");
}
I have Serailze the generic list which I have, into "Restaurant.txt" file.
now I want to Deserialize the same and return it into a Generic List, I have tried
but its not working and it is giving error "Invalid Cast Expression".
Can anyone please help in solving out this.
You should serialize the complete list itself.
using (Stream stream = File.Open("data.bin", FileMode.Create))
{
BinaryFormatter bin = new BinaryFormatter();
bin.Serialize(stream, restaurantList);
}
You can later deserialize the complete list like this
using (Stream stream = File.Open("data.bin", FileMode.Open))
{
BinaryFormatter bin = new BinaryFormatter();
var restaurantList=(List<Restaurant>)bin.Deserialize(stream);
}
Kapadni,
I am storing my list/BindingList of object in .xml file and may be below functions/code will help you to serialize and de-serialize object and store/retrieve from .xml file
BindingList<IntradayData> objIntradayDataList;
SerializeObject(objIntradayDataList, filepath);
objIntradayDataList = DeSerializeObject<BindingList<IntradayData>>(filepath);
public void SerializeObject<T>(T serializableObject, string fileName)
{
if (serializableObject == null) { return; }
try
{
XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(serializableObject.GetType());
using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
serializer.Serialize(stream, serializableObject);
stream.Position = 0;
xmlDocument.Load(stream);
xmlDocument.Save(fileName);
stream.Close();
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//Log exception here
log.Error("SerializeObject ", ex);
}
}
public T DeSerializeObject<T>(string fileName)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(fileName)) { return default(T); }
T objectOut = default(T);
try
{
string attributeXml = string.Empty;
XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
xmlDocument.Load(fileName);
string xmlString = xmlDocument.OuterXml;
using (StringReader read = new StringReader(xmlString))
{
Type outType = typeof(T);
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(outType);
using (XmlReader reader = new XmlTextReader(read))
{
objectOut = (T)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
reader.Close();
}
read.Close();
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//Log exception here
log.Error("DeSerializeObject ", ex);
}
return objectOut;
}

IsolateStorage Issue in WP7

I am facing the problem regarding the following issue in wp7
"Type 'System.Windows.Media.Transform' cannot be serialized in C#"
When i call the below method to save my List data to isolated storage
SerializeHelper.SaveSetting("myfile.Xml",swaplist);
then then i am getting the exception.
public static class SerializeHelper
{
public static void SaveSetting<T>(string fileName, T dataToSave)
{
using (var store = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())
{
try
{
using (var stream = store.CreateFile(fileName))
{
var serializer = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(T));
serializer.WriteObject(stream, dataToSave);
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
MessageBox.Show(e.Message);
return;
}
}
}
}
I am attaching the screenshot of structure of list data
How to resolve this?
Thank you for adding the screenshot... and pasting some code. Can't really see anything wrong.
does you VM only expose public primitive / serialisable types ? I have in past used something like this to serialise to iso store.
public static void SaveObjectToStorage<T>(T ObjectToSave)
{
TextWriter writer;
using (IsolatedStorageFile isf = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())
{
using (IsolatedStorageFileStream fs = isf.OpenFile(GetFileName<T>(), System.IO.FileMode.Create))
{
writer = new StreamWriter(fs);
XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
ser.Serialize(writer, ObjectToSave);
writer.Close();
}
}
}

Simultaneously writing and validating XML

I have a Write method that serializes objects which use XmlAttributes. It's pretty standard like so:
private bool WriteXml(DirectoryInfo dir)
{
var xml = new XmlSerializer(typeof (Composite));
_filename = Path.Combine(dir.FullName, _composite.Symbol + ".xml");
using (var xmlFile = File.Create(_filename))
{
xml.Serialize(xmlFile, _composite);
}
return true;
}
Apart from trying to read the file I have just written out (with a Schema validator), can I perform XSD validation WHILE the XML is being written?
I can mess around with memory streams before writing it to disk, but it seems in .Net there is usually an elegant way of solving most problems.
The way I've done it is like this for anyone interested:
public Composite Read(Stream stream)
{
_errors = null;
var settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
using (var fileStream = File.OpenRead(XmlComponentsXsd))
{
using (var schemaReader = new XmlTextReader(fileStream))
{
settings.Schemas.Add(null, schemaReader);
settings.ValidationType = ValidationType.Schema;
settings.ValidationEventHandler += OnValidationEventHandler;
using (var xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(stream, settings))
{
var serialiser = new XmlSerializer(typeof (Composite));
return (Composite) serialiser.Deserialize(xmlReader);
}
}
}
}
private ValidationEventArgs _errors = null;
private void OnValidationEventHandler(object sender, ValidationEventArgs validationEventArgs)
{
_errors = validationEventArgs;
}
Then instead of writing the XML to file, using a memory stream do something like:
private bool WriteXml(DirectoryInfo dir)
{
var xml = new XmlSerializer(typeof (Composite));
var filename = Path.Combine(dir.FullName, _composite.Symbol + ".xml");
// first write it to memory
var memStream = new MemoryStream();
xml.Serialize(memStream, _composite);
memStream.Position = 0;
Read(memStream);
if (_errors != null)
{
throw new Exception(string.Format("Error writing to {0}. XSD validation failed : {1}", filename, _errors.Message));
}
memStream.Position = 0;
using (var outFile = File.OpenWrite(filename))
{
memStream.CopyTo(outFile);
}
memStream.Dispose();
return true;
}
That way you're always validating against the schema before anything is written to disk.

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