Best .net Method to create an XML Doc

Question

I am trying to figure out what the best method is for writing an XML Document. Below is a simple example of what I am trying to create off of data I am pulling from our ERP system. I have read about XMLWriter, but thought I would see if there are any other better methods. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Example XML:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Orders>
  <Order OrderNumber="12345">
    <ItemNumber>0123993587</ItemNumber>
    <QTY>10</QTY>
    <WareHouse>PA019</WareHouse>
  </Order>
  <Order OrderNumber="12346">
    <ItemNumber>0123993587</ItemNumber>
    <QTY>9</QTY>
    <WareHouse>PA019</WareHouse>
  </Order>
  <Order OrderNumber="12347">
    <ItemNumber>0123993587</ItemNumber>
    <QTY>8</QTY>
    <WareHouse>PA019</WareHouse>
  </Order>
</Orders>

Answer 1

If you don't want (or can't) to use LINQ to XML, neither to duplicate your Order class to include XML serialization, and thinks XmlWriter is too much verbose, you can go with plain classical XmlDocument class:

// consider Order class that data structure you receive from your ERP system
List<Order> orders = YourERP.GetOrders();
XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
xml.AppendChild(xml.CreateElement("Orders"));
foreach (Order order in orders)
{
    XmlElement item = xml.CreateElement("Order");
    item.SetAttribute("OrderNumber", order.OrderNumber);
    item.AppendChild(xml.CreateElement("ItemNumber")).Value = order.ItemNumber;
    item.AppendChild(xml.CreateElement("QTY"       )).Value = order.Quantity;
    item.AppendChild(xml.CreateElement("WareHouse" )).Value = order.WareHouse;
    xml.DocumentElement.AppendChild(item);
}

Answer 2

There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread, but one that hasn't been mentioned: Defining an ADO DataSet and serializing/deserializing using the ReadXml and WriteXml methods. This can be a very simple and attractive solution. Your XML isn't in quite the right format, but it's close.

Answer 3

I had to create following XML document having some part of it parametrized.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<wap-provisioningdoc>
  <characteristic type="BOOTSTRAP">
    <parm name="NAME" value="SYNCSETTINGS" />
  </characteristic>
  <characteristic type="APPLICATION">
    <parm name="APPID" value="w5" />
    <parm name="TO-NAPID" value="INTERNET" />
    <parm name="NAME" value="SYNCSETTINGS" />
    <parm name="ADDR" value="http://syncserver/sync" />
    <characteristic type="RESOURCE">
      <parm name="URI" value="pb" />
      <parm name="NAME" value="Contacts DB" />
      <parm name="AACCEPT" value="text/x-vcard" />
    </characteristic>
    <characteristic type="RESOURCE">
      <parm name="URI" value="cal" />
      <parm name="NAME" value="Calendar DB" />
      <parm name="AACCEPT" value="text/x-vcalendar" />
    </characteristic>
    <characteristic type="RESOURCE">
      <parm name="URI" value="notes" />
      <parm name="NAME" value="Notes DB" />
      <parm name="AACCEPT" value="text/plain" />
    </characteristic>
    <characteristic type="APPAUTH">
      <parm name="AAUTHNAME" value="username" />
      <parm name="AAUTHSECRET" value="password" />
    </characteristic>
  </characteristic>
</wap-provisioningdoc>

And here's my code that does this with single LINQ statement.

Make a note that creating XML document above using LINQ and saving it to XML file preserves the XML document formatting and keeps line-breaks and carriage-returns that makes the document properly tabified.

public string CreateOTAXmlFile(string Username, string Password)
    {
        var ota = new XDocument(
                    new XElement("wap-provisioningdoc",
                        new XElement("characteristic", new XAttribute("type", "BOOTSTRAP"),
                            new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "NAME"), new XAttribute("value", "SYNCSETTINGS"))
                                    ),
                        new XElement("characteristic", new XAttribute("type", "APPLICATION"),
                            new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "APPID"), new XAttribute("value", "w5")),
                            new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "TO-NAPID"), new XAttribute("value", "INTERNET")),
                            new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "NAME"), new XAttribute("value", "SYNCSETTINGS")),
                            new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "ADDR"), new XAttribute("value", "http://syncserver/sync")),
                            new XElement("characteristic", new XAttribute("type", "RESOURCE"),
                                new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "URI"), new XAttribute("value", "pb")),
                                new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "NAME"), new XAttribute("value", "Contacts DB")),
                                new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "AACCEPT"), new XAttribute("value", "text/x-vcard"))
                                        ),
                            new XElement("characteristic", new XAttribute("type", "RESOURCE"),
                                new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "URI"), new XAttribute("value", "cal")),
                                new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "NAME"), new XAttribute("value", "Calendar DB")),
                                new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "AACCEPT"), new XAttribute("value", "text/x-vcalendar"))
                                        ),
                            new XElement("characteristic", new XAttribute("type", "RESOURCE"),
                                new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "URI"), new XAttribute("value", "notes")),
                                new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "NAME"), new XAttribute("value", "Notes DB")),
                                new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "AACCEPT"), new XAttribute("value", "text/plain"))
                                        ),
                            new XElement("characteristic", new XAttribute("type", "APPAUTH"),
                                new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "AAUTHNAME"), new XAttribute("value", Username)),
                                new XElement("parm", new XAttribute("name", "AAUTHSECRET"), new XAttribute("value", Password))
                                        )
                                    )
                                )
                            );

        ota.Save(Server.MapPath("~/OTA/") + Username + ".xml");
        return (ota.ToString());

    }

Answer 4

Josh's answer shows how easy it is to create a single element in LINQ to XML... it doesn't show how it's also hugely easy to create multiple elements. Suppose you have a List<Order> called orders... you can create the whole document like this:

var xml = new XElement("Orders",
    orders.Select(order =>
        new XElement("Order",
            new XAttribute("OrderNumber", order.OrderNumber),
            new XElement("ItemNumber", order.ItemNumber),
            new XElement("QTY", order.Quantity),
            new XElement("Warehouse", order.Warehouse)
        ));
);

LINQ to XML makes constructing XML incredibly easy. It also has support for XML namespaces which is pretty easy too. For instance, if you wanted your elements to be in a particular namespace, you'd just need:

XNamespace ns = "http://your/namespace/here";
var xml = new XElement(ns + "Orders",
    orders.Select(order =>
        new XElement(ns + "Order",
... (rest of code as before)

LINQ to XML is the best XML API I've worked with... it's great for querying too.

Answer 5

You just right click on your code window , select InsertSnippet follow this Link

 Data-Xml.....>Xml>Xmlcreate

its very easy