Using C# and XDocument/XElement to parse a Soap Re

Question

Here is a sample soap response from my SuperDuperService:

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <soap:Body>
        <MyResponse xmlns="http://mycrazyservice.com/SuperDuperService">
            <Result>32347</Result> 
        </MyResponse>
    </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

For some reason when I try to grab the Descendant or Element of "Result" I get null. Does it have something to do with the Namespace? Can someone provide a solution to retrieve Result from this?

Answer 1

You're searching in the right direction, it definitely has to do with the namespace.

The code below returns the first element found for the combination of namespace and element name.

XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(@"c:\temp\file.xml");
XNamespace ns = @"http://mycrazyservice.com/SuperDuperService";
XElement el = doc.Elements().DescendantsAndSelf().FirstOrDefault( e => e.Name == ns + "Result");

Answer 2

Maybe like this:

IEnumerable<XElement> list = doc.Document.Descendants("Result");
if (list.Count() > 0)
{
    // do stuff
}

Answer 3

to extend Justin's answer with tested code with a return that excpects a boolean and that the response and result start with the method name (BTW - a surprise is even thought the XML element does not show the NS it requires it when parsing):

    private string ParseXml(string sXml, string sNs, string sMethod, out bool br)
    {
        br = false;
        string sr = "";
        try
        {
            XDocument xd = XDocument.Parse(sXml);

            if (xd.Root != null)
            {
                XNamespace xmlns = sNs;
                var results = from result in xd.Descendants(xmlns + sMethod + "Response")
                              let xElement = result.Element(xmlns + sMethod + "Result")
                              where xElement != null
                              select xElement.Value;
                foreach (var item in results)
                    sr = item;
                br = (sr.Equals("true"));
                return sr;
            }
            return "Invalid XML " + Environment.NewLine + sXml;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            return "Invalid XML " + Environment.NewLine + ex.Message + Environment.NewLine + sXml;
        }
    }

Answer 4

You might want to try something like this:

string myNamespace= "http://mycrazyservice.com/SuperDuperService";

var results = from result in yourXml.Descendants(XName.Get("MyResponse", myNamespace))
              select result.Element("Result").value

Don't have VS on this laptop so I can't double check my code, but it should point you in the right direction using LINQ to SQL.