C# XDocument Load with multiple roots - c#

I have an XML file with no root. I cannot change this. I am trying to parse it, but XDocument.Load won't do it. I have tried to set ConformanceLevel.Fragment, but I still get an exception thrown. Does anyone have a solution to this?
I tried with XmlReader, but things are messed up and can't get it work right. XDocument.Load works great, but if I have a file with multiple roots, it doesn't.

XmlReader itself does support reading of xml fragment - i.e.
var settings = new XmlReaderSettings { ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Fragment };
using (var reader = XmlReader.Create("fragment.xml", settings))
{
// you can work with reader just fine
}
However XDocument.Load does not support reading of fragmented xml.
Quick and dirty way is to wrap the nodes under one virtual root before you invoke the XDocument.Parse. Like:
var fragments = File.ReadAllText("fragment.xml");
var myRootedXml = "<root>" + fragments + "</root>";
var doc = XDocument.Parse(myRootedXml);
This approach is limited to small xml files - as you have to read file into memory first; and concatenating large string means moving large objects in memory - which is best avoided.
If performance matters you should be reading nodes into XDocument one-by-one via XmlReader as explained in excellent #Martin-Honnen 's answer (https://stackoverflow.com/a/18203952/2440262)
If you use API that takes for granted that XmlReader iterates over valid xml, and performance matters, you can use joined-stream approach instead:
using (var jointStream = new MultiStream())
using (var openTagStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("<root>"), false))
using (var fileStream =
File.Open(#"fragment.xml", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
using (var closeTagStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("</root>"), false))
{
jointStream.AddStream(openTagStream);
jointStream.AddStream(fileStream);
jointStream.AddStream(closeTagStream);
using (var reader = XmlReader.Create(jointStream))
{
// now you can work with reader as if it is reading valid xml
}
}
MultiStream - see for example https://gist.github.com/svejdo1/b9165192d313ed0129a679c927379685
Note: XDocument loads the whole xml into memory. So don't use it for large files - instead use XmlReader for iteration and load just the crispy bits as XElement via XNode.ReadFrom(...)

The only in-memory tree representations in the .NET framework that can deal with fragments are the XmlDocumentFragment in .NET's DOM implementation so you would need to create an XmlDocument and a fragment with e.g.
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
XmlDocumentFragment frag = doc.CreateDocumentFragment();
frag.InnerXml = stringWithXml; // for instance
// frag.InnerXml = File.ReadAllText("fragment.xml");
or is XPathDocument where you can create one using an XmlReader with ConformanceLevel set to Fragment:
XPathDocument doc;
using (XmlReader xr =
XmlReader.Create("fragment.xml",
new XmlReaderSettings()
{
ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Fragment
}))
{
doc = new XPathDocument(xr);
}
// new create XPathNavigator for read out data e.g.
XPathNavigator nav = doc.CreateNavigator();
Obviously XPathNavigator is read-only.
If you want to use LINQ to XML then I agree with the suggestions made that you need to create an XElement as a wrapper. Instead of pulling in a string with the file contents you could however use XNode.ReadFrom with an XmlReader e.g.
public static class MyExtensions
{
public static IEnumerable<XNode> ParseFragment(XmlReader xr)
{
xr.MoveToContent();
XNode node;
while (!xr.EOF && (node = XNode.ReadFrom(xr)) != null)
{
yield return node;
}
}
}
then
XElement root = new XElement("root",
MyExtensions.ParseFragment(XmlReader.Create(
"fragment.xml",
new XmlReaderSettings() {
ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Fragment })));
That might work better and more efficiently than reading everything into a string.

If you wanted to use XmlDocument.Load() then you would need to wrap the content in a root node.
or you could try something like this...
while (xmlReader.Read())
{
if (xmlReader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element)
{
XmlDocument d = new XmlDocument();
d.CreateElement().InnerText = xmlReader.ReadOuterXml();
}
}

XML document cannot have more than one root elements. One root element is required. You may do one thing. Get all the fragment elements and wrap them into a root element and parse it with XDocument.
This would be the best and easiest approach that one could think of.

Related

Most efficient way to determine how class use to Deserialize XML

I have many .xsd files for many xml schemas
example
XML 1.0 - xml_1_0.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cars version="1.00">
<car>Honda</car>
<car>Ferrari</car>
</cars>
XML 2.0 - xml_2_0.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cars version="2.00">
<car>
<name>Honda</name>
<color>White</color>
</car>
<car>
<name>Honda</name>
<color>Red</color>
</car>
</cars>
I create my classes from .xsd like this
xsd.exe cars_1_0.xsd /c
xsd.exe cars_2_0.xsd /c
And Deserialize like this:
foreach(string file in files) {
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load(file);
string version = doc.SelectSingleNode("/Cars/#version").Value;
if(version == "1.00")
{
Stream reader = new FileStream(file, FileMode.Open);
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(v1.Cars));
v1.Cars XML = new v1.Cars();
XML = (v1.Cars)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
else if(version == "2.00")
{
Stream reader = new FileStream(file, FileMode.Open);
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(v2.Cars));
v2.Cars XML = new v2.Cars();
XML = (v2.Cars)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
}
Does anyone know a better way to do this, or have a better performance?
You have several options, depending on how far you want to take this. One fairly non invasive option would be to not use XmlDocument and avoid loading the stream more than once. For example, your existing code could be simplified/streamlined to :
foreach (string file in files)
{
using (var stream = new FileStream(file, FileMode.Open))
{
var settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
settings.CloseInput = false;
string version = "";
using (var xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(stream))
{
if (xmlReader.ReadToFollowing("Cars"))
{
version = xmlReader.GetAttribute("version");
}
else
{
throw new XmlException("Could not get 'version' attribute of 'Cars' root element!");
}
}
stream.Position = 0;
if (version == "1.00")
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(v1.Cars));
v1.Cars XML = new v1.Cars();
XML = (v1.Cars)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
}
else if (version == "2.00")
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(v2.Cars));
v2.Cars XML = new v2.Cars();
XML = (v2.Cars)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
}
}
}
Since you're just reading off the root element, you might even be able to get away with deserializing from the XmlReader and not have to reset the position on the FileStream.
This avoids the overhead of loading the entire file twice (once for XmlDocument, then again for XmlSerializer) - and particularly avoids the memory overhead of creating a DOM for each document.
A more nuclear option would be implementing IXmlSerializable on a set of custom classes, which would have custom logic in the ReadXml methods to parse the version attribute and instantiate the correct child type(s) - e.g. a CarCollection class that has a List<Car> property, where Car is an abstract class that has CarV1 and CarV2 as descendants. This would be about as efficient as you could get (and offer very fine grained control over your class hierarchy design), but would eliminate the possibility of using xsd.exe to generate your classes.

Appending inside a parent tag using XmlWriter

I am using this code to write to a xml document. Issue is every time I call this code it overrides previously written Tags element.
However I want to append multiple Tag elements inside the Tags elements. How can I make such sets using XmlWriter?
using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(path))
{
writer.WriteStartElement("Tags");
writer.WriteElementString("Tag", tagName);
writer.WriteEndElement();
}
I found out over the net few solution involving LINQ, with which I am not very good at. So I am looking something without it?
This can be done via Linq Xml by:
public void AddTagToXml(string path, string tag)
{
XDocument doc;
// Load the existing file
if (File.Exists(path)) doc = XDocument.Load(path);
else
{
// Create a new file with the parent node
doc = new XDocument(new XElement("Tags"));
}
doc.Root.Add(new XElement("tag", tag));
doc.Save(path);
}
It's not terribly efficient as the file is opened and saved on each function call, but it covers your requirements.

Issue in XDocument.Save Method

I am trying to insert data in existing XMl file. I have the following code.
string file = MapPath("~/XMLFile1.xml");
XDocument doc;
//Verify whether a file is exists or not
if (!System.IO.File.Exists(file))
{
doc = new XDocument(new XDeclaration("1.0", "UTF-8", "yes"),
new System.Xml.Linq.XElement("Contacts"));
}
else
{
doc = XDocument.Load(file);
}
foreach (var c in MyContactsLst)
{
//var contactsElement = new XElement("Contacts",
var contactsElement = new XElement("Contact",
new XElement("Name", c.FirstOrDefault().DisplayName),
new XElement("PhoneNumber", c.FirstOrDefault().PhoneNumber.ToString()),
new XElement("Email", "abc#abc.com"));
doc.Root.Add(contactsElement);
doc.Save(file);
}
The first issue is in first line of code i.e. MapPath("~/XMLFile1.xml"); It gives me an error
The name 'MapPath' does not exist in the current context
The second issue is in doc.Save(file); It gives me an error
The best overloaded method match for 'System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Save(System.IO.Stream)' has some invalid arguments
I have refer this question How to insert data into an existing xml file in asp.net?
I am learning XML. So, how can I solve this?
The reason why MapPath does not exist in the current context is because it is a method of HttpServerUtility class, and as far as I know, it is not supported on Windows Phone.
Try loading the XDocument like this:
XDocument xdocument = XDocument.Load("XMLFile1.xml");
EDIT: You were having an error saving the document. Here is an answer from a related thread:
using (var storage = IsolatedStorageFile.GetUserStoreForApplication())
{
using (Stream stream = storage.CreateFile("data.xml"))
{
doc.Save(stream);
}
}
Adding onto Kajzer's answer, here is another alternative that may be easier to grasp and use for saving an XDocument:
string path = "[some path]";
using (Stream stream = File.Create(path))
{
doc.Save(stream);
}
There is just one using statement, and you'll only need the System.IO class as it provides both the Stream and File classes for you to use - making this the most straightforward and easiest to understand solution.

How to append ChildNodes of a xml documents into root of another (web services)?

I've created a [WebMethod] on ASP.NET Web Service which reads XML documents from different web services (ASP.NET and PHP services).
Once the documents are read, they are merged into a XML and returned.
The method can successfully read XML documents from each web service but when I try to append second XML into first one, I get ArgumentException and a message like this The node to be inserted is from a different document context. I can't find a problem, can it be something to do with the source of document? but then both document are exactly same (have same elements).
Why ArgumentException? What am I missing?
[WebMethod]
public XmlDocument getRestaurants(String search_keywords)
{
XmlDocument xmlDom1 = new XmlDocument();
xmlDom1 = getRestaurantFromAspNetWS(search_keywords);
XmlTextReader myXmlTextReader =
new XmlTextReader
("http://some-iss.green.com/username/search.php?s=" + search_keywords);
XmlDocument xmlDom2 = new XmlDocument();
xmlDom2.Load(myXmlTextReader);
foreach (XmlElement xmlNode in xmlDom2.DocumentElement.ChildNodes)
{
//trying to append childNodes of xmlDom2 into xmlDom1
//and this is where i get ArgumentException
xmlDom1.DocumentElement.AppendChild(xmlNode);
}
return xmlDom1;
}
You need to import the node with importNode()
something like this:
xmlDom1.DocumentElement.importNode(xmlNode, true);
Can you write it like this?
public XElement getRestaurants(String search_keywords)
{
XElement result = getRestaurantFromAspNetWS(search_keywords);
XmlTextReader myXmlTextReader = new XmlTextReader
("http://some-iss.green.com/username/search.php?s=" + search_keywords);
XElement reader = XElement.Load(myXmlTextReader);
foreach (XElement child in reader.Elements())
result.Add(child);
return result;
}
The real trick is getting your custom getRestaurantFromAspNetWS function to return a XElement instead of a XmlDocument, as you didn't provide us with that function, I can't help you there.

Apply XSLT on in-memory XML and returning in-memory XML

I am looking for a static function in the .NET framework which takes an XML snippet and an XSLT file, applies the transformation in memory, and returns the transformed XML.
I would like to do this:
string rawXml = invoiceTemplateDoc.MainDocumentPart.Document.InnerXml;
rawXml = DoXsltTransformation(rawXml, #"c:\prepare-invoice.xslt"));
// ... do more manipulations on the rawXml
Alternatively, instead of taking and returning strings, it could be taking and returning XmlNodes.
Is there such a function?
You can use the StringReader and StringWriter classes :
string input = "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?> ...";
string output;
using (StringReader sReader = new StringReader(input))
using (XmlReader xReader = XmlReader.Create(sReader))
using (StringWriter sWriter = new StringWriter())
using (XmlWriter xWriter = XmlWriter.Create(sWriter))
{
XslCompiledTransform xslt = new XslCompiledTransform();
xslt.Load("transform.xsl");
xslt.Transform(xReader, xWriter);
output = sWriter.ToString();
}
A little know feature is that you can in fact transform data directly into a XmlDocument DOM or into a LINQ-to-XML XElement or XDocument (via the CreateWriter() method) without having to pass through a text form by getting an XmlWriter instance to feed them with data.
Assuming that your XML input is IXPathNavigable and that you have loaded a XslCompiledTransform instance, you can do the following:
XmlDocument target = new XmlDocument(input.CreateNavigator().NameTable);
using (XmlWriter writer = target.CreateNavigator().AppendChild()) {
transform.Transform(input, writer);
}
You then have the transformed document in the taget document. Note that there are other overloads on the transform to allow you to pass XSLT arguments and extensions into the stylesheet.
If you want you can write your own static helper or extension method to perform the transform as you need it. However, it may be a good idea to cache the transform since loading and compiling it is not free.
Have you noticed that there is the XsltCompiledTransform class?

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