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Invalid OpenXml after converting from XElement

I'm using this code to convert from an XElement to OpenXmlElement
internal static OpenXmlElement ToOpenXml(this XElement xel)
{
using (var sw = new StreamWriter(new MemoryStream()))
{
sw.Write(xel.ToString());
sw.Flush();
sw.BaseStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
var re = OpenXmlReader.Create(sw.BaseStream);
re.Read();
var oxe = re.LoadCurrentElement();
re.Close();
return oxe;
}
}
Before the conversion I have an XElement
<w:ind w:firstLine="0" w:left="0" w:right="0"/>
After the conversion it looks like this
<w:ind w:firstLine="0" w:end="0" w:start="0"/>
This element then fails OpenXml validation using the following
var v = new OpenXmlValidator();
var errs = v.Validate(doc);
With the errors being reported:
Description="The 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main:start' attribute is not declared."
Description="The 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main:end' attribute is not declared."
Do I need to do other things to add these attributes to the schema or do I need to find a new way to convert from XElement to OpenXml?
I'm using the nuget package DocumentFormat.OpenXml ver 2.9.1 (the latest).
EDIT: Looking at the OpenXml standard, it seems that both left/start and right/end should be recognised which would point to the OpenXmlValidator not being quite correct. Presumably I can just ignore those validation errors then?
Many thx

The short answer is that you can indeed ignore those specific validation errors. The OpenXmlValidator is not up-to-date in this case.
I would additionally offer a more elegant implementation of your ToOpenXml method (note the using declarations, which were added in C# 8.0).
internal static OpenXmlElement ToOpenXmlElement(this XElement element)
{
// Write XElement to MemoryStream.
using var stream = new MemoryStream();
element.Save(stream);
stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
// Read OpenXmlElement from MemoryStream.
using OpenXmlReader reader = OpenXmlReader.Create(stream);
reader.Read();
return reader.LoadCurrentElement();
}
If you don't use C# 8.0 or using declarations, here's the corresponding code with using statements.
internal static OpenXmlElement ToOpenXmlElement(this XElement element)
{
using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
{
// Write XElement to MemoryStream.
element.Save(stream);
stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
// Read OpenXmlElement from MemoryStream.
using OpenXmlReader reader = OpenXmlReader.Create(stream);
{
reader.Read();
return reader.LoadCurrentElement();
}
}
}
Here's the corresponding unit test, which also demonstrates that you'd have to pass a w:document to have the w:ind element's attributes changed by the Indentation instance created in the process.
public class OpenXmlReaderTests
{
private const string NamespaceUriW = "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main";
private static readonly string XmlnsW = $"xmlns:w=\"{NamespaceUriW}\"";
private static readonly string IndText =
$#"<w:ind {XmlnsW} w:firstLine=""10"" w:left=""20"" w:right=""30""/>";
private static readonly string DocumentText =
$#"<w:document {XmlnsW}><w:body><w:p><w:pPr>{IndText}</w:pPr></w:p></w:body></w:document>";
[Fact]
public void ConvertingDocumentChangesIndProperties()
{
XElement element = XElement.Parse(DocumentText);
var document = (Document) element.ToOpenXmlElement();
Indentation ind = document.Descendants<Indentation>().First();
Assert.Null(ind.Left);
Assert.Null(ind.Right);
Assert.Equal("10", ind.FirstLine);
Assert.Equal("20", ind.Start);
Assert.Equal("30", ind.End);
}
[Fact]
public void ConvertingIndDoesNotChangeIndProperties()
{
XElement element = XElement.Parse(IndText);
var ind = (OpenXmlUnknownElement) element.ToOpenXmlElement();
Assert.Equal("10", ind.GetAttribute("firstLine", NamespaceUriW).Value);
Assert.Equal("20", ind.GetAttribute("left", NamespaceUriW).Value);
Assert.Equal("30", ind.GetAttribute("right", NamespaceUriW).Value);
}
}

Deserialize object property with StringReader vs XmlNodeReader

Why does XmlSerializer populate my object property with an XmlNode array when deserializing an empty typed element using XmlNodeReader instead of an empty string like it does when using StringReader (or XmlTextReader)?
The second assertion in the following code sample fails:
var doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load(new StringReader(#"
<Test xmlns:xsi=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance""
xmlns:xsd=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"">
<Value xsi:type=""xsd:string"" />
</Test>"));
var ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof (Test));
var reader1 = new StringReader(doc.InnerXml);
var obj1 = (Test) ser.Deserialize(reader1);
Debug.Assert(obj1.Value is string);
var reader2 = new XmlNodeReader(doc.FirstChild);
var obj2 = (Test) ser.Deserialize(reader2);
Debug.Assert(obj2.Value is string);
public class Test
{
public object Value { get; set; }
}
I'm guessing it has something to do with the null internal NamespaceManager property but I'm not sure how to work around this mysterious limitation. How can I reliably deserialize a subset of my parsed XML document without converting it back into a string and re-parsing?

It looks like this is a very old XmlNodeReader bug that Microsoft have no intention of fixing. (Archived Microsoft Connect link here). I found a workaround on Lev Gimelfarb's blog here that adds namespaces to the reader's NameTable as prefixes are looked up.
public class ProperXmlNodeReader : XmlNodeReader
{
public ProperXmlNodeReader(XmlNode node) : base(node)
{
}
public override string LookupNamespace(string prefix)
{
return NameTable.Add(base.LookupNamespace(prefix));
}
}

Read Soap Message using C#

<s:Envelope xmlns:s="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<s:Head>
<h:talkId s:mustknow="1" xmlns:h="urn:schemas-test:testgate:hotel:2012-06">
sfasfasfasfsfsf</h:talkId>
</s:Head>
<s:Body>
<bookHotelResponse xmlns="urn:schemas-test:testgate:hotel:2012-06" xmlns:d="http://someURL" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<d:bookingReference>123456</d:bookingReference>
<d:bookingStatus>successful</d:bookingStatus>
<d:price xmlns:p="moreURL">
<d:total>105</d:total>
</d:price>
</bookHotelResponse>
</s:Body>
</s:Envelope>
I am trying to read the above soap message XmlDocument using C#:
XmlDocument document = new XmlDocument();
document.LoadXml(soapmessage); //loading soap message as string
XmlNamespaceManager manager = new XmlNamespaceManager(document.NameTable);
manager.AddNamespace("d", "http://someURL");
XmlNodeList xnList = document.SelectNodes("//bookHotelResponse", manager);
int nodes = xnList.Count;
foreach (XmlNode xn in xnList)
{
Status = xn["d:bookingStatus"].InnerText;
}
The count is always zero and it is not reading the bookingstatus values.

BookHotelResponse is in the namespace urn:schemas-test:testgate:hotel:2012-06 (the default namespace in the sample xml) so you need to provide that namespace in your queries:
XmlDocument document = new XmlDocument();
document.LoadXml(soapmessage); //loading soap message as string
XmlNamespaceManager manager = new XmlNamespaceManager(document.NameTable);
manager.AddNamespace("d", "http://someURL");
manager.AddNamespace("bhr", "urn:schemas-test:testgate:hotel:2012-06");
XmlNodeList xnList = document.SelectNodes("//bhr:bookHotelResponse", manager);
int nodes = xnList.Count;
foreach (XmlNode xn in xnList)
{
Status = xn["d:bookingStatus"].InnerText;
}

Use LINQ2XML
To read bookingStatus,do this
XElement doc = XElement.Load("yourStream.xml");
XNamespace s = "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/";//Envelop namespace s
XNamespace bhr="urn:schemas-test:testgate:hotel:2012-06";//bookHotelResponse namespace
XNamespace d="http://someURL";//d namespace
foreach (var itm in doc.Descendants(s + "Body").Descendants(bhr+"bookHotelResponse"))
{
itm.Element(d+"bookingStatus").Value;//your bookingStatus value
}
LINQ2XML is cool though....:)

First you want to create a class to deseralize the xml values into
public class bookHotelResponse {
public int bookingReference { get; set; }
public int bookingStatus { get; set; }
}
Then you can utilize GetElementsByTagName to extract the body of the soap request and deseralize the request string into an object.
private static T DeserializeInnerSoapObject<T>(string soapResponse)
{
XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
xmlDocument.LoadXml(soapResponse);
var soapBody = xmlDocument.GetElementsByTagName("soap:Body")[0];
string innerObject = soapBody.InnerXml;
XmlSerializer deserializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
using (StringReader reader = new StringReader(innerObject))
{
return (T)deserializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
}

As I understand you want to get response from soap service. If so, you don't have to do all this hard work (making call, parsing xml, selecting nodes to get the response value) by yourself... instead you need to Add Service Reference to your project and it will do all the rest work for you, including generating class, making asmx call and so on...
Read more about it here https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb628649.aspx
Everything you'll need to do after adding reference is to invoke a class method something like this
var latestRates = (new GateSoapClient())?.ExchangeRatesLatest();
return latestRates?.Rates;

How can I read information from an XML file and set them to attributes in a class?

I have this code:
public class Hero
{
XmlReader Reader = new XmlTextReader("InformationRepositories/HeroRepository/HeroInformation.xml");
XmlReaderSettings XMLSettings = new XmlReaderSettings();
public ImageSource GetHeroIcon(string Name)
{
XMLSettings.IgnoreWhitespace = true;
XMLSettings.IgnoreComments = true;
Reader.MoveToAttribute(" //I'm pretty much stuck here.
}
}
And this is the XML file I want to read from:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Hero>
<Legion>
<Andromeda>
<HeroType>Agility</HeroType>
<Damage>39-53</Damage>
<Armor>3.1</Armor>
<MoveSpeed>295</MoveSpeed>
<AttackType>Ranged(400)</AttackType>
<AttackRate>.75</AttackRate>
<Strength>16</Strength>
<Agility>27</Agility>
<Intelligence>15</Intelligence>
<Icon>Images/Hero/Andromeda.gif</Icon>
</Andromeda>
</Legion>
<Hellbourne>
</Hellbourne>
</Hero>
I'm tring to get the ,/Icon> element.

MoveToAttribute() won't help you, because everything in your XML is elements. The Icon element is a subelement of the Andromeda element.
One of the easiest ways of navigating an XML document if you're using the pre-3.5 xml handling is by using an XPathNavigator. See this example for getting started, but basically you just need to create it and call MoveToChild() or MoveToFollowing() and it'll get you to where you want to be in the document.
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load("InformationRepositories/HeroRepository/HeroInformation.xml");
XPathNavigator nav = doc.CreateNavigator();
if (nav.MoveToFollowing("Icon",""))
Response.Write(nav.ValueAsInt);
Note that an XPathNavigator is a forward only mechanism, so it can be problematic if you need to do looping or seeking through the document.
If you're just reading XML to put the values into objects, you should seriously consider doing this automatically via object serialization to XML. This would give you a painless and automatic way to load your xml files back into objects.

Mark your attributes in your object according to the element you want to load them to:
See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.serialization.xmlattributeattribute.aspx
If, for some reason, you can't do this to your current object, consider making a bridge object which mirrors your original object and add a AsOriginal() method which returns the Original Object.
Working off the msdn example:
public class GroupBridge
{
[XmlAttribute (Namespace = "http://www.cpandl.com")]
public string GroupName;
[XmlAttribute(DataType = "base64Binary")]
public Byte [] GroupNumber;
[XmlAttribute(DataType = "date", AttributeName = "CreationDate")]
public DateTime Today;
public Group AsOriginal()
{
Group g = new Group();
g.GroupName = this.GroupName;
g.GroupNumber = this.GroupNumber;
g.Today = this.Today;
return g;
}
}
public class Group
{
public string GroupName;
public Byte [] GroupNumber;
public DateTime Today;
}
To Serialize and DeSerialize from LINQ objects, you can use:
public static string SerializeLINQtoXML<T>(T linqObject)
{
// see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb546184.aspx
DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(linqObject.GetType());
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sb);
dcs.WriteObject(writer, linqObject);
writer.Close();
return sb.ToString();
}
public static T DeserializeLINQfromXML<T>(string input)
{
DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(T));
TextReader treader = new StringReader(input);
XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(treader);
T linqObject = (T)dcs.ReadObject(reader, true);
reader.Close();
return linqObject;
}
I don't have any example code of Serialization from non-LINQ objects, but the MSDN link should point you in the right direction.

You can use linq to xml:
public class XmlTest
{
private XDocument _doc;
public XmlTest(string xml)
{
_doc = XDocument.Load(new StringReader(xml);
}
public string Icon { get { return GetValue("Icon"); } }
private string GetValue(string elementName)
{
return _doc.Descendants(elementName).FirstOrDefault().Value;
}
}

you can use this regular exspression "<Icon>.*</Icon>" to find all the icons
then just remove the remove the tag, and use it....
would be a lot shorter
Regex rgx = new Regex("<Icon>.*</Icon>");
MatchCollection matches = rgx.Matches(xml);
foreach (Match match in matches)
{
string s= match.Value;
s= s.Remove(0,6)
s= s.Remove(s.LastIndexOf("</Icon>"),7);
console.Writeline(s);
}

How do I create an XmlNode from a call to XmlSerializer.Serialize?

I am using a class library which represents some of its configuration in .xml. The configuration is read in using the XmlSerializer. Fortunately, the classes which represent the .xml use the XmlAnyElement attribute at which allows me to extend the configuration data for my own purposes without modifying the original class library.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Config>
<data>This is some data</data>
<MyConfig>
<data>This is my data</data>
</MyConfig>
</Config>
This works well for deserialization. I am able to allow the class library to deserialize the .xml as normal and the I can use my own XmlSerializer instances with a XmlNodeReader against the internal XmlNode.
public class Config
{
[XmlElement]
public string data;
[XmlAnyElement]
public XmlNode element;
}
public class MyConfig
{
[XmlElement]
public string data;
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
using (Stream fs = new FileStream(#"c:\temp\xmltest.xml", FileMode.Open))
{
XmlSerializer xser1 = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Config));
Config config = (Config)xser1.Deserialize(fs);
if (config.element != null)
{
XmlSerializer xser2 = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyConfig));
MyConfig myConfig = (MyConfig)xser2.Deserialize(new XmlNodeReader(config.element));
}
}
}
I need to create a utility which will allow the user to generate a new configuration file that includes both the class library configuration as well my own configuration, so new objects will be created which were not read from the .xml file. The question is how can I serialize the data back into .xml?
I realize that I have to initially call XmlSerializer.Serialize on my data before calling the same method on the class library configuration. However, this requires that my data is represented by an XmlNode after calling Serialize. What is the best way to serialize an object into an XmlNode using the XmlSerializer?
Thanks,
-kevin
btw-- It looks like an XmlNodeWriter class written by Chris Lovett was available at one time from Microsoft, but the links are now broken. Does anyone know of an alternative location to get this class?

So you need to have your class contain custom configuration information, then serialize that class to XML, then make that serialized XML into an XML node: is that right?
Could you just take the string created by the XMLSerializer and wrap that in it's own XML tags?
XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyConfig));
StringWriter xout = new StringWriter();
xs.Serialize(xout, myConfig);
XmlDocument x = new XmlDocument();
x.LoadXml("<myConfig>" + xout.ToString() + "</myConfig>");
Now x is an XmlDocument containing one element, "<myconfig>", which has your serialized custom configuration in it.
Is that at all what you're looking for?

It took a bit of work, but the XPathNavigator route does work... just remember to call .Close on the XmlWriter, .Flush() doesn't do anything:
//DataContractSerializer serializer = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(foo));
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(foo));
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
XPathNavigator nav = doc.CreateNavigator();
XmlWriter writer = nav.AppendChild();
writer.WriteStartDocument();
//serializer.WriteObject(writer, new foo { bar = 42 });
serializer.Serialize(writer, new foo { bar = 42 });
writer.WriteEndDocument();
writer.Flush();
writer.Close();
Console.WriteLine(doc.OuterXml);

One solution is to serialize the inner object to a string and then load the string into a XmlDocument where you can find the XmlNode representing your data and attach it to the outer object.
XmlSerializer xser1 = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Config));
XmlSerializer xser2 = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyConfig));
MyConfig myConfig = new MyConfig();
myConfig.data = "My special data";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(sb);
XmlWriter xw = new XmlTextWriter(sw);
xser2.Serialize(xw, myConfig);
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(sb.ToString());
Config config = new Config();
config.data = "some new info";
config.element = doc.LastChild;
xser1.Serialize(fs, config);
However, this solution is cumbersome and I would hope there is a better way, but it resolves my problem for now.
Now if I could just find the mythical XmlNodeWriter referred to on several blogs!

At least one resource points to this as an alternative to XmlNodeWriter: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5x8bxy86.aspx. Otherwise, you could write MS using that form they have on the new MSDN Code Library replacement for GotDotNet looking for XmlNodeWriter.