I am new to LINQ to XML. After you have built XDocument, how do you get the OuterXml of it like you did with XmlDocument?
You only need to use the overridden ToString() method of the object:
XDocument xmlDoc ...
string xml = xmlDoc.ToString();
This works with all XObjects, like XElement, etc.
I don't know when this changed, but today (July 2017) when trying the answers out, I got
"System.Xml.XmlDocument"
Instead of ToString(), you can use the originally intended way accessing the XmlDocument content: writing the xml doc to a stream.
XmlDocument xml = ...;
string result;
using (StringWriter writer = new StringWriter())
{
xml.Save(writer);
result = writer.ToString();
}
Several responses give a slightly incorrect answer.
XDocument.ToString() omits the XML declaration (and, according to #Alex Gordon, may return invalid XML if it contains encoded unusual characters like &).
Saving XDocument to StringWriter will cause .NET to emit encoding="utf-16", which you most likely don't want (if you save XML as a string, it's probably because you want to later save it as a file, and de facto standard for saving files is UTF-8 - .NET saves text files as UTF-8 unless specified otherwise).
#Wolfgang Grinfeld's answer is heading in the right direction, but it's unnecessarily complex.
Use the following:
var memory = new MemoryStream();
xDocument.Save(memory);
string xmlText = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(memory.ToArray());
This will return XML text with UTF-8 declaration.
Doing XDocument.ToString() may not get you the full XML.
In order to get the XML declaration at the start of the XML document as a string, use the XDocument.Save() method:
var ms = new MemoryStream();
using (var xw = XmlWriter.Create(new StreamWriter(ms, Encoding.GetEncoding("ISO-8859-1"))))
new XDocument(new XElement("Root", new XElement("Leaf", "data"))).Save(xw);
var myXml = Encoding.GetEncoding("ISO-8859-1").GetString(ms.ToArray());
Use ToString() to convert XDocument into a string:
string result = string.Empty;
XElement root = new XElement("xml",
new XElement("MsgType", "<![CDATA[" + "text" + "]]>"),
new XElement("Content", "<![CDATA[" + "Hi, this is Wilson Wu Testing for you! You can ask any question but no answer can be replied...." + "]]>"),
new XElement("FuncFlag", 0)
);
result = root.ToString();
While #wolfgang-grinfeld's answer is technically correct (as it also produces the XML declaration, as opposed to just using .ToString() method), the code generated UTF-8 byte order mark (BOM), which for some reason XDocument.Parse(string) method cannot process and throws Data at the root level is invalid. Line 1, position 1. error.
So here is a another solution without the BOM:
var utf8Encoding =
new UTF8Encoding(encoderShouldEmitUTF8Identifier: false);
using (var memory = new MemoryStream())
using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(memory, new XmlWriterSettings
{
OmitXmlDeclaration = false,
Encoding = utf8Encoding
}))
{
CompanyDataXml.Save(writer);
writer.Flush();
return utf8Encoding.GetString(memory.ToArray());
}
I found this example in the Microsoft .NET 6 documentation for XDocument.Save method. I think it answers the original question (what is the XDocument equivalent for XmlDocument.OuterXml), and also addresses the concerns that others have pointed out already. By using the XmlWritingSettings you can predictably control the string output.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.xml.linq.xdocument.save
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
XmlWriterSettings xws = new XmlWriterSettings();
xws.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;
xws.Indent = true;
using (XmlWriter xw = XmlWriter.Create(sb, xws)) {
XDocument doc = new XDocument(
new XElement("Child",
new XElement("GrandChild", "some content")
)
);
doc.Save(xw);
}
Console.WriteLine(sb.ToString());
Looking at these answers, I see a lot of unnecessary complexity and inefficiency in pursuit of generating the XML declaration automatically. But since the declaration is so simple, there isn't much value in generating it. Just KISS (keep it simple, stupid):
// Extension method
public static string ToStringWithDeclaration(this XDocument doc, string declaration = null)
{
declaration ??= "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>\r\n";
return declaration + doc.ToString();
}
// Usage
string xmlString = doc.ToStringWithDeclaration();
// Or
string xmlString = doc.ToStringWithDeclaration("...");
Using XmlWriter instead of ToString() can give you more control over how the output is formatted (such as if you want indentation), and it can write to other targets besides string.
The reason to target a memory stream is performance. It lets you skip the step of storing the XML in a string (since you know the data must end up in a different encoding eventually, whereas string is always UTF-16 in C#). For instance, for an HTTP request:
// Extension method
public static ByteArrayContent ToByteArrayContent(
this XDocument doc, XmlWriterSettings xmlWriterSettings = null)
{
xmlWriterSettings ??= new XmlWriterSettings();
using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
{
using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(stream, xmlWriterSettings))
{
doc.Save(writer);
}
var content = new ByteArrayContent(stream.GetBuffer(), 0, (int)stream.Length);
content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("text/xml");
return content;
}
}
// Usage (XDocument -> UTF-8 bytes)
var content = doc.ToByteArrayContent();
var response = await httpClient.PostAsync("/someurl", content);
// Alternative (XDocument -> string -> UTF-8 bytes)
var content = new StringContent(doc.ToStringWithDeclaration(), Encoding.UTF8, "text/xml");
var response = await httpClient.PostAsync("/someurl", content);
Related
I've got a question regarding an XML feed and XSL transformation I'm doing. In a few parts of the outputted feed on an HTML page, I get weird characters (such as ’) appearing on the page.
On another site (that I don't own) that's using the same feed, it isn't getting these characters.
Here's the code I'm using to grab and return the transformed content:
string xmlUrl = "http://feedurl.com/feed.xml";
string xmlData = new System.Net.WebClient().DownloadString(xmlUrl);
string xslUrl = "http://feedurl.com/transform.xsl";
XsltArgumentList xslArgs = new XsltArgumentList();
xslArgs.AddParam("type", "", "specifictype");
string resultText = Utils.XslTransform(xmlData, xslUrl, xslArgs);
return resultText;
And my Utils.XslTransform function looks like this:
static public string XslTransform(string data, string xslurl)
{
TextReader textReader = new StringReader(data);
XmlReaderSettings settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
settings.DtdProcessing = DtdProcessing.Ignore;
XmlReader xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(textReader, settings);
XmlReader xslReader = new XmlTextReader(Uri.UnescapeDataString(xslurl));
XslCompiledTransform myXslT = new XslCompiledTransform();
myXslT.Load(xslReader);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
using (TextWriter tw = new StringWriter(sb))
{
myXslT.Transform(xmlReader, new XsltArgumentList(), tw);
}
string transformedData = sb.ToString();
return transformedData;
}
I'm not extremely knowledgeable with character encoding issues and I've been trying to nip this in the bud for a bit of time and could use any suggestions possible. I'm not sure if there's something I need to change with how the WebClient downloads the file or something going weird in the XslTransform.
Thanks!
Give HtmlEncode a try. So in this case you would reference System.Web and then make this change (just call the HtmlEncode function on the last line):
string xmlUrl = "http://feedurl.com/feed.xml";
string xmlData = new System.Net.WebClient().DownloadString(xmlUrl);
string xslUrl = "http://feedurl.com/transform.xsl";
XsltArgumentList xslArgs = new XsltArgumentList();
xslArgs.AddParam("type", "", "specifictype");
string resultText = Utils.XslTransform(xmlData, xslUrl, xslArgs);
return HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(resultText);
The character â is a marker of multibyte sequence (’) of UTF-8-encoded text when it's represented as ASCII. So, I guess, you generate an HTML file in UTF-8, while browser interprets it otherwise. I see 2 ways to fix it:
The simplest solution would be to update the XSLT to include the HTML meta tag that will hint the correct encoding to browser: <meta charset="UTF-8">.
If your transform already defines a different encoding in meta tag and you'd like to keep it, this encoding needs to be specified in the function that saves XML as file. I assume this function took ASCII by default in your example. If your XSLT was configured to generate XML files directly to disk, you could adjust it with XSLT instruction <xsl:output encoding="ASCII"/>.
To use WebClient.DownloadString you have to know what the encoding the server is going use and tell the WebClient in advance. It's a bit of a Catch-22.
But, there is no need to do that. Use WebClient.DownloadData or WebClient.OpenReader and let an XML library figure out which encoding to use.
using (var web = new WebClient())
using (var stream = web.OpenRead("http://unicode.org/repos/cldr/trunk/common/supplemental/windowsZones.xml"))
using (var reader = XmlReader.Create(stream, new XmlReaderSettings { DtdProcessing = DtdProcessing.Parse }))
{
reader.MoveToContent();
//… use reader as you will, including var doc = XDocument.ReadFrom(reader);
}
XmlDocument is adding a space at the end of self closing tags, even with PreserveWhitespace set to true.
// This fails
string originalXml = "<sample><node id=\"99\"/></sample>";
// Convert to XML
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.PreserveWhitespace = true;
doc.LoadXml(originalXml);
// Save back to a string
string extractedXml = null;
using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
doc.Save(stream);
stream.Position = 0;
using(StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream))
{
extractedXml = reader.ReadToEnd();
}
}
// Confirm that they are identical
Assert.AreEqual(originalXml, extractedXml);
The desired output is:
<sample><node id="99"/></sample>
But I am getting:
<sample><node id="99" /></sample>
Is there a way to suppress that extra space?
Here's how XmlDocument.Save(Stream) looks like :
public virtual void Save(Stream outStream)
{
XmlDOMTextWriter xmlDomTextWriter = new XmlDOMTextWriter(outStream, this.TextEncoding);
if (!this.preserveWhitespace)
xmlDomTextWriter.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
this.WriteTo((XmlWriter) xmlDomTextWriter);
xmlDomTextWriter.Flush();
}
So setting PreserveWhiteSpace has no effect on the inside of the nodes. The documentation of the XmlTextWriter says :
When writing an empty element, an additional space is added between tag name and the closing tag, for example . This provides compatibility with older browsers.
So I guess there is no easy way out. Here's a workaround tho:
So I wrote a wrapper class MtxXmlWriter that is derived from XmlWriter and wraps the original XmlWriter returned by XmlWriter.Create() and does all the necessary tricks.
Instead of using XmlWriter.Create() you just call one of the MtxXmlWriter.Create() methods, that's all. All other methods are directly handed over to the encapsulated original XmlWriter except for WriteEndElement(). After calling WriteEndElement() of the encapsulated XmlWriter, " />" is replaced with "/>" in the buffer:
I'm currently trying to serialize a class into XML to be posted to php web service.
Whenever I did the normal serialization using XMLSerializer, XML declaration is always appear in the first line of the XML document (similar as to <?xml ....?>). I tested the XML and unable to get it working because the endpoint does not accept XML declaration and I can't do anything about it.
I'm unfamiliar with XML Serialization in C# to be honest.
Therefore, I used XMLWriter to do this as below :-
private string SerializeClassToString(GetRiskReport value)
{
var emptyNS = new XmlSerializerNamespaces(new[] { XmlQualifiedName.Empty });
var ser = new XmlSerializer(value.GetType());
var settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;
using (var stream = new StringWriter())
{
using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(stream, settings))
{
ser.Serialize(writer, value, emptyNS);
return stream.ToString();
}
}
}
Result for the Namespace is
<GetRiskReport FCRA=\"false\" ReturnResultsOnly=\"false\" Monitoring=\"false\">
... and I'm able to omit the XML Declaration, however I'm being introduced with 2 new problem.
I got \r\n for new line and I have escaped double quote such as ReturnResultsOnly=\"false\" Monitoring=\"false\" which is also unable processed by the endpoint.
I would like to ask is that does anyone can give me an idea on how to change the XmlWriterSetting to omit XML Declaration, avoid \r\n and also avoid escaped double quotes \"
Thanks for your advice in advance.
Simon
Try with following settings
settings.NewLineHandling = NewLineHandling.None;
settings.CheckCharacters = false;
private void SerializeClassToString(GetRiskReport value)
{
var emptyNS = new XmlSerializerNamespaces(new[]{XmlQualifiedName.Empty});
var ser = new XmlSerializer(value.GetType());
var settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;
string path = 'your_file_path_here'
if (File.Exists(path)) File.Delete(path);
FileStream stream = File.Create(path);
using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(stream, settings))
{
ser.Serialize(writer, value, emptyNS);
return;
}
}
There was no way to avoid ms bug or thier intensional specification about xmlserializing.It's easier and faster to use filestream object.
I have an XML document that has been created using utf-8 encoding. I want to store that document in a sql 2008 xml column but I understand I need to convert it to utf-16 in order to do that.
I've tried using XDocument to do this but I'm not getting a valid XML result after the conversion. Here is what I've tried to do the conversion on (Utf8StringWriter is a small class that inherits from StringWriter and overloads Encoding):
XDocument xDoc = XDocument.Parse(utf8Xml);
StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
XmlWriter xml = XmlWriter.Create(writer, new XmlWriterSettings()
{ Encoding = writer.Encoding, Indent = true });
xDoc.WriteTo(xml);
string utf16Xml = writer.ToString();
The data in the utf16Xml is invalid and when trying to insert into the database I get the error:
{"XML parsing: line 1, character 38, unable to switch the encoding"}
However the initial utf8Xml data is definitely valid and contains all the info I need.
UPDATE:
The initial XML is obtained by using XMLSerializer (with an Utf8StringWriter class) to create the xml string from an existing object model (engine). The code for this is:
public static void Serialise<T>(T engine, ref StringWriter writer)
{
XmlWriter xml = XmlWriter.Create(writer, new XmlWriterSettings() { Encoding = writer.Encoding });
XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(engine.GetType());
xs.Serialize(xml, engine);
}
I have to leave this like this as that code is out of my control to change.
Before I even send the utf16Xml string to the failing database call I can view it via the Visual Studio debugger and I notice that the entire string is not present and instead I get a string literal was not closed error on the XML viewer.
The error is on first line XDocument xDoc = XDocument.Parse(utf8Xml);. Most likely you converted utf8 stream into a string (utf8xml), but encoding specified in the string is still utf-8, so XML reader fails. If it is true than load XML directly from stream using Load instead of converting it to string first.
Set the encoding of the document to UTF-16 after you have parsed it from utf8xml
XDocument xDoc = XDocument.Parse(utf8Xml);
xDoc.Declaration.Encoding = "utf-16";
StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
XmlWriter xml = XmlWriter.Create(writer, new XmlWriterSettings()
{ Encoding = writer.Encoding, Indent = true });
xDoc.WriteTo(xml);
string utf16Xml = writer.ToString();
Here's what I had to do to make it work. This just converts the XML to utf-16
string getUtf16Xml(System.Xml.XmlDocument xmlDoc)
{
System.Xml.Linq.XDocument xDoc = System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Parse(xmlDoc.OuterXml);
xDoc.Declaration.Encoding = "utf-16";
return xDoc.ToString();
}
Then I can save the results to the DB.
I'm serializing an object in a C# VS2003 / .Net 1.1 application. I need it serialized without the processing instruction, however. The XmlSerializer class puts out something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" ?>
<MyObject>
<Property1>Data</Property1>
<Property2>More Data</Property2>
</MyObject>
Is there any way to get something like the following, without processing the resulting text to remove the tag?
<MyObject>
<Property1>Data</Property1>
<Property2>More Data</Property2>
</MyObject>
For those that are curious, my code looks like this...
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyObject));
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
using ( TextWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter(builder) )
{
serializer.Serialize(stringWriter, comments);
return builder.ToString();
}
I made a small correction
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyObject));
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;
using ( XmlWriter stringWriter = XmlWriter.Create(builder, settings) )
{
serializer.Serialize(stringWriter, comments);
return builder.ToString();
}
In 2.0, you would use XmLWriterSettings.OmitXmlDeclaration, and serialize to an XmlWriter - however I don't think this exists in 1.1; so not entirely useful - but just one more "consider upgrading" thing... and yes, I realise it isn't always possible.
The following link will take you to a post where someone has a method of supressing the processing instruction by using an XmlWriter and getting into an 'Element' state rather than a 'Start' state. This causes the processing instruction to not be written.
Suppress Processing Instruction
If you pass an XmlWriter to the serializer, it will only emit a processing
instruction if the XmlWriter's state is 'Start' (i.e., has not had anything
written to it yet).
// Assume we have a type named 'MyType' and a variable of this type named
'myObject'
System.Text.StringBuilder output = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
System.IO.StringWriter internalWriter = new System.IO.StringWriter(output);
System.Xml.XmlWriter writer = new System.Xml.XmlTextWriter(internalWriter);
System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer serializer = new
System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(typeof(MyType));
writer.WriteStartElement("MyContainingElement");
serializer.Serialize(writer, myObject);
writer.WriteEndElement();
In this case, the writer will be in a state of 'Element' (inside an element)
so no processing instruction will be written. One you finish writing the
XML, you can extract the text from the underlying stream and process it to
your heart's content.
What about omitting namespaces ?
instead of using
XmlSerializerNamespaces namespaces = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
namespaces.Add("", "");
ex:
<message xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\">
If by "processing instruction" you mean the xml declaration, then you can avoid this by setting the OmitXmlDeclaration property of XmlWriterSettings. You'll need to serialize using an XmlWriter, to accomplish this.
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyObject));
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;
using ( XmlWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter(builder, settings) )
{
serializer.Serialize(stringWriter, comments);
return builder.ToString();
}
But ah, this doesn't answer your question for 1.1. Well, for reference to others.
This works in .NET 1.1. (But you should still consider upgrading)
XmlSerializer s1= new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyClass));
XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
ns.Add( "", "" );
MyClass c= new MyClass();
c.PropertyFromDerivedClass= "Hallo";
sw = new System.IO.StringWriter();
s1.Serialize(new XTWND(sw), c, ns);
....
/// XmlTextWriterFormattedNoDeclaration
/// helper class : eliminates the XML Documentation at the
/// start of a XML doc.
/// XTWFND = XmlTextWriterFormattedNoDeclaration
public class XTWFND : System.Xml.XmlTextWriter
{
public XTWFND(System.IO.TextWriter w) : base(w) { Formatting = System.Xml.Formatting.Indented; }
public override void WriteStartDocument() { }
}