I am calling an API and have to send a xml request in C# with data in different nodes. How can make xml dynamically and with nodes in incremental naming.
For example
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<addCustomer>
<FirstName_1>ABC</FirstName_1>
<LastName_1>DEF</LastName_1>
<FirstName_2>GSH</FirstName_2>
<LastName_2>ADSF</LastName_2>
</addCustomer>
The problem is making xml nodes with incremental names like FirstName_1,FirstName_2,FirstName_3 and so on.
Would a customer have more than one FirstName and more than one LastName? If each FirstName and LastName pairs represent a different customer then your xml should look something like....
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<AddCustomers>
<Customer>
<FirstName>ABC</FirstName>
<LastName>DEF</LastName>
</Customer>
<Customer>
<FirstName>GSH</FirstName>
<LastName>ASDF</LastName>
</Customer>
</AddCustomers>
If you absolutely have to do it the way that you did it in your example, I do not see any way to do this except just using a string_builder and create it yourself within a for loop while incrementing your integer to add to the end of each First and last name attributes. This is not really how xml is supposed to work.
I know your pain; having to deal with 3rd party APIs can be big pain.
Instead of using StringBuilder you can use XElement.
public void AddCustomerInfo(string firstName, string lastName, int index, XElement root)
{
XElement firstNameInfo = new XElement("FirstName_" + index);
firstNameInfo.Value = firstName;
XElement lastNameInfo = new XElement("LastName_" + index);
lastNameInfo.Value = lastName;
root.Add(firstNameInfo);
root.Add(lastNameInfo);
}
Then call the function as the following:
XElement rootElement = new XElement("addCustomer");
AddCustomerInfo("ABC", "DEF", 1, rootElement);
Put that line inside a loop and you're all set.
I think the simplest solution would be the best here:
Assuming you have a collection of Customer objects called Customers...
StringBuilder xmlForApi = new StringBuilder();
int customerCounter = 1;
foreach(Customer c in Customers)
{
xmlForApi.AppendFormat("<FirstName_{0}>{1}</FirstName_{0}><LastName_{0}>{2}</LastName_{0}>", customerCounter, c.FirstName, c.LastName)
customerCounter++;
}
Related
Using LINQ to XML.
I have an XML file which looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TileMap xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Title>title</Title>
<Abstract>Some clever text about this.</Abstract>
<SRS>OSGEO:41001</SRS>
<Profile>global-mercator or something</Profile>
</TileMap>
I can retrieve the <Title> from this with no problems by using this little piece of code:
string xmlString = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + #"Capabilities\" + name + ".xml";
string xmlText = File.ReadAllText(xmlString);
byte[] buffer = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(xmlText);
XElement element = XElement.Load(xmlString);
IEnumerable<XElement> title =
from el in element.Elements("Title")
select el;
foreach (XElement el in title)
{
var elementValue = el.Value;
}
However, this isn't very flexible because say I have an XML file that looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RootObject xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Services>
<TileMapService>
<Title>title</Title>
<href>http://localhost/root</href>
</TileMapService>
</Services>
</RootObject>
It can't find <Title> but it finds <Services> (I presume) but since it's not called "Title" it just ignores it. I'm not very strong in working with XML. How would I go about making a method that looks through the XML and fetches me "Title" or however you'd implement this?
You're currently just looking at the child elements of the root element.
Instead, if you want to find all descendants, use Descendants.
Additionally, there's no point in using a query expression of from x in y select x (or rather, there's a very limited point in some cases, but not here). So just use:
var titles = element.Descendants("Title");
Personally I would actually use XDocument here rather than XElement - you have after all got a whole document, complete with XML declaration, not just an element.
Change your LINQ query to:
IEnumerable<XElement> title =
from el in element.Descendants("Title")
select el;
Elements returns only the immediate children, Descendants returns all descendant nodes instead.
Descendants will select all the "Title" elements irrespective of the level. Please use xpath to correctly locate the element
using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Xml.Linq;
using System.Xml.XPath;
using System.IO;
public class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
string xmlFile = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + #"Capabilities\" + name + ".xml";
XElement xml=XElement.Load(xmlFile);
IEnumerable<XElement> titleElements = xml.XPathSelectElements("//Services/TileMapService/Title");
}
}
<Customers>
<Customer1>
<Name>Bobby</Name>
<Age>21</Age>
<Address>Panjim</Address>
</Customer1>
<Customer2>
<Name>Peter</Name>
<Age>32</Age>
<Address>Panjim</Address>
</Customer2>
<Customer4>
<Name>Joel</Name>
<Age>32</Age>
<Address>Mapusa</Address>
</Customer4>
</Customers>
So the thing is I want to delete a particular element and when i delete the first element i.e customer1, I want to update the other elements. I mean I want to make customer3, customer2 and customer2, customer1.
Can anyone please help me achieve this?
What about:
class Program {
static void Main(string[ ] args) {
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("D:\\file.xml"); //example file
doc.Root.SwitchAndRemove("Customer1");
doc.Save("D:\\file.xml");
}
}
public static class Utilities {
public static void SwitchAndRemove(this XElement customers, XName name) {
var x = customers.Descendants().Where(e => e.Name == name).Select((element, index) => new { element, index }).Single();
int count = 0;
XElement temp = x.element;
foreach (XElement el in customers.Nodes()) {
if (count == x.index + 1) {
temp.RemoveAll();
temp.Add(el.Descendants().ToArray());
temp = el;
}
else
count++;
}
temp.Remove();
}
}
By giving as input your xml the output is the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Customers>
<Customer1>
<Name>Peter</Name>
<Age>32</Age>
<Address>Panjim</Address>
</Customer1>
<Customer2>
<Name>Joel</Name>
<Age>32</Age>
<Address>Mapusa</Address>
</Customer2>
</Customers>
I'd argue that your problem is not how you could rename your nodes with minimum effort but structure of your XML file.
You said order of customers is not important and apparently customer tag's number is not important, either, since you want to rename the tags upon deletion.
So maybe this structure just creates unnecessary complexity and extra work for you.
Only reason I see you could need the number in tag is to identify the node you are about to remove. Am I right or is there something more to it? If not then you could add random unique identifier (like Guid) to your customer data to remove the right one.
Could save you lot of trouble.
<customers>
<customer>
<guid>07fb-877c-...</guid>
<name>Notch</name>
<age>34</age>
<address>street</address>
</customer>
<customer>
<guid>1435-435a-...</guid>
<name>Sam</name>
<age>23</age>
<address>other</address>
</customer>
<customers>
Say the element you have to delete is Customer1, first of all you can read the complete xml file using one of the XML parsing classes available in c# like XDocument or XmlReader and write to another xml file say "Temp.xml" skipping the Customer1 element completely. This way we have achieved the deletion part.
Next to update, forget the file being XML file and read the entire file to a string, say "xmlstring". Now use the Replace function available with a string data type to replace "Customer2" with "Customer1" and then "Customer3" with "Customer2" and so on.
And now delete your original XML file and write the string "xmlstring" using a stream writer to a file name "YourFileName.xml"
Thats it. Hope this solution works for you. Try this and in case u are unable get this done, share the code which u tried and we shall suggest how to work it out.
taken from your comment that the order does not have to be preserved then you can do this
public static void RemoveCustomer(XElement customers, XElement removeThis){
var last = customeers.Elements().Last();
if(last != removeThis){
foreach(var element in removeThis.Elements()){
element.Value = last.Element(element.Name).Value;
}
}
last.Remove();
}
It effectively substitutes the one to be removed with the last (unless the last should be removed) and thereby eliminates the need for renaming any of the other elements
I have a DataSet with data that I output (write) to an XMl file.
I have added a namespace and prefix to the dataset like this:
public static string XmlNamespace = "http://namespace";
public static string XmlPrefix = "ns0";
RequestDataSet.Namespace = XmlNamespace;
RequestDataSet.Prefix = XmlPrefix;
The XML output is as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<ns0:list xmlns:ns0="http://namespace">
<ns0:item xmlns="http://namespace">
<data1>1234</data1>
<data2>91011</data2>
</item>
</ns0:list>
But it should be like this: (no namespace on the item records. Just the prefix)
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<ns0:list xmlns:ns0="http://namespace">
<ns0:item>
<data1>1234</data1>
<data2>91011</data2>
</item>
</ns0:list>
I have tried setting the tables prefix/namespace to null like this:
RequestDataSet.Tables["item"].Prefix = XmlPrefix;
RequestDataSet.Tables["item"].Namespace = null;
But that also does not work... Does anyone know a solution for this?
I've come across similar issues when fighting with BizTalk adapters... but that's a different story.
Not sure if there is a different (cleaner) way, but you could always 'grab' the attribute and remove it, as decribed here.
Effectively you would do the following:
XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument();
xDoc.LoadXml(xml);
if (xDoc.DocumentElement.Attributes.Count > 0)
{
XmlAttribute xAtt = xDoc.DocumentElement.Attributes[0];
xDoc.DocumentElement.Attributes.Remove(xAtt);
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<form:Documents xmlns:form="http://www.abbyy.com/FlexiCapture/Schemas/Export/FormData.xsd" xmlns:addData="http://www.abbyy.com/FlexiCapture/Schemas/Export/AdditionalFormData.xsd">
<_Document_Definition_1:_Document_Definition_1 addData:ImagePath="C:\POC\Export\Test.pdf" xmlns:_Document_Definition_1="http://www.abbyy.com/FlexiCapture/Schemas/Export/Document_Definition_1.xsd">
<_Page_1>
<_First_Name>John</_First_Name>
<_Last_Name>Doe</_Last_Name>
</_Page_1>
</_Document_Definition_1:_Document_Definition_1>
</form:Documents>
I have xml containing directory of pdf file which I would need to read.
I can read first name and last name from _Page_1 node but do not know how to read ImagePath.
Here is my code to read from _Page_1
XDocument xDoc = XDocument.Load("Test.xml");
var poc = from p in xDoc.Descendants("_Page_1")
select new
{
FirstName = p.Element("_First_Name").Value,
LastNumber = p.Element("_Last_Name").Value
};
// Execute the query
foreach (var customer in poc)
{
Console.WriteLine(customer.FirstName);
Console.WriteLine(customer.LastName);
}
//Pause the application
Console.ReadLine();
Thank you BrokenGlass, it's working.
I have one more question.
What if I have several iteration of _Document_Definition node, how do I read each iteration.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<form:Documents xmlns:form="http://www.abbyy.com/FlexiCapture/Schemas/Export/FormData.xsd" xmlns:addData="http://www.abbyy.com/FlexiCapture/Schemas/Export/AdditionalFormData.xsd">
<_Document_Definition_1:_Document_Definition_1 addData:ImagePath="C:\POC\Export\Test.pdf" xmlns:_Document_Definition_1="http://www.abbyy.com/FlexiCapture/Schemas/Export/Document_Definition_1.xsd">
<_Page_1>
<_First_Name>John</_First_Name>
<_Last_Name>Doe</_Last_Name>
</_Page_1>
</_Document_Definition_1:_Document_Definition_1>
<_Document_Definition_1:_Document_Definition_1 addData:ImagePath="C:\POC\Export\Test2.pdf" xmlns:_Document_Definition_1="http://www.abbyy.com/FlexiCapture/Schemas/Export/Document_Definition_1.xsd">
<_Page_1>
<_First_Name>Jane</_First_Name>
<_Last_Name>Doe</_Last_Name>
</_Page_1>
</_Document_Definition_1:_Document_Definition_1>
</form:Documents>
You are missing the XML namespace references to access those attributes, this works:
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(#"test.xml");
XNamespace _Document_Definition_1 = "http://www.abbyy.com/FlexiCapture/Schemas/Export/Document_Definition_1.xsd";
XNamespace addData = "http://www.abbyy.com/FlexiCapture/Schemas/Export/AdditionalFormData.xsd";
string impagePath = doc.Descendants(_Document_Definition_1 + "_Document_Definition_1")
.First()
.Attribute(addData + "ImagePath")
.Value;
It looks like Imagepath is an attribute not an element. Hence you are not able to read it. Check for the attributes in the xml file.
I've got an XML file which I use to create objects, change the objects, then save the objects back into the XML file.
What do I have to change in the following code so that it extracts a node from the XML based on the id, replaces that node with the new one, and saves it back into the XML?
The following gives me 'System.Xml.Linq.XElement' does not contain a constructor that takes '0' arguments':
//GET ALL SMARTFORMS AS XML
XDocument xmlDoc = null;
try
{
xmlDoc = XDocument.Load(FullXmlDataStorePathAndFileName);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
HandleXmlFileNotFound(ex);
}
//EXTRACT THE NODE THAT NEEDS TO BE REPLACED
XElement oldElementToOverwrite = xmlDoc.Descendants("smartForm")
.Where(sf => (int)sf.Element("id") == 2)
.Select(sf => new XElement());
//CREATE THE NODE THAT WILL REPLACE IT
XElement newElementToSave = new XElement("smartForm",
new XElement("id", this.Id),
new XElement("idCode", this.IdCode),
new XElement("title", this.Title)
);
//OVERWRITE OLD WITH NEW
oldElementToOverwrite.ReplaceWith(newElementToSave);
//SAVE XML BACK TO FILE
xmlDoc.Save(FullXmlDataStorePathAndFileName);
XML file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<root>
<smartForm>
<id>1</id>
<whenCreated>2008-12-31</whenCreated>
<itemOwner>system</itemOwner>
<publishStatus>published</publishStatus>
<correctionOfId>0</correctionOfId>
<idCode>customerSpecial</idCode>
<title>Edit Customer Special</title>
<description>This form has a special setup.</description>
<labelWidth>200</labelWidth>
</smartForm>
<smartForm>
<id>2</id>
<whenCreated>2008-12-31</whenCreated>
<itemOwner>system</itemOwner>
<publishStatus>published</publishStatus>
<correctionOfId>0</correctionOfId>
<idCode>customersMain</idCode>
<title>Edit Customer</title>
<description>This form allows you to edit a customer.</description>
<labelWidth>100</labelWidth>
</smartForm>
<smartForm>
<id>3</id>
<whenCreated>2008-12-31</whenCreated>
<itemOwner>system</itemOwner>
<publishStatus>published</publishStatus>
<correctionOfId>0</correctionOfId>
<idCode>customersNameOnly</idCode>
<title>Edit Customer Name</title>
<description>This form allows you to edit a customer's name only.</description>
<labelWidth>100</labelWidth>
</smartForm>
</root>
Well, the error has nothing to do with saving, or even with replacement - it has to do with you trying to create an XElement without specifying the name. Why are you trying to use Select at all? My guess is you just want to use Single:
XElement oldElementToOverwrite = xmlDoc.Descendants("smartForm")
.Where(sf => (int)sf.Element("id") == 2)
.Single();
(As Noldorin notes, you can give Single a predicate to avoid using Where at all. Personally I quite like to split the two operations up, but they'll be semantically equivalent.)
That will return the single element in the sequence, or throw an exception if there are 0 elements or more than one. Alternatives are to use SingleOrDefault, First, or FirstOrDefault:
SingleOrDefault if it's legal to have 0 or 1
First if it's legal to have 1 or more
FirstOrDefault if it's legal to have 0 or more
If you're using an "OrDefault" one, the result will be null if there are no matches.
I think the problem is simply your use of the Select call in the statement assigning oldElementToOverwrite. You actually seem to want the Single extension method.
XElement oldElementToOverwrite = xmlDoc.Descendants("smartForm")
.Single(sf => (int)sf.Element("id") == 2)