General xml creation issue

abhishekkashyap27 · July 23rd, 2011, 05:36 AM

Hi All

I am just writing a method to generate a xml document from scratch. I am using .NET Framework 4.0 and VS 2010.

Here is my method to generate the xml:

Code:

private void CreateMyXML()
        {
            // creating xml document
            XmlDocument xmldoc = new XmlDocument();

            // creating root element
            XmlElement root = xmldoc.CreateElement("Modularity:ModuleCatalog");
            
            
            // Now add attributes to the root element
            root.SetAttribute("xmlns", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation");
            root.SetAttribute("xmlns:x", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml");
            root.SetAttribute("xmlns:sys", "clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib");
            root.SetAttribute("xmlns:modularity", "clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism");
            
            xmldoc.AppendChild(root);

            XmlElement elem1 = xmldoc.CreateElement("Modularity:ModuleInfo");
            // Now add attributes to this element
            elem1.SetAttribute("Ref", "Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.xap");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleName", "WorkspaceBarModule");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleType", "Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.WorkspaceBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null");

            root.AppendChild(elem1);

            elem1 = xmldoc.CreateElement("Modularity:ModuleInfo");
            // Now add attributes to this element
            elem1.SetAttribute("Ref", "Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.xap");
            elem1.SetAttribute("InitializationMode", "OnDemand");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleName", "StencilBarModule");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleType", "Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.StencilBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null");

            root.AppendChild(elem1);
            string xmlOutput = xmldoc.OuterXml;

        }

The output which i get is not correct because the root element & its child element "local name" appears but i want the "name" instead. What needs to be modified in this? What code I am missing?

-- Abhishek

ChristianNagel · July 23rd, 2011, 06:04 AM

Hello Abhishek,

What's your issue? This is the XML I see generated:

Code:

<ModuleCatalog xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib" xmlns:modularity="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism">
  <ModuleInfo Ref="Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.xap" ModuleName="WorkspaceBarModule" ModuleType="Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.WorkspaceBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null" />
  <ModuleInfo Ref="Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.xap" InitializationMode="OnDemand" ModuleName="StencilBarModule" ModuleType="Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.StencilBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null" />
</ModuleCatalog>

And why don't you use the newer XElement and XAtribute classes? It's so much easier to create XML with it:

Code:

            XNamespace ns = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation";
            XElement xml = new XElement(ns + "ModuleCatalog",
                new XAttribute("xmlns", ns),
                new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "x", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"),
                new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "sys", "clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"),
                new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "modularity", "clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism"),
                new XElement(ns + "ModuleInfo",
                    new XAttribute("Ref", "Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.xap"),
                    new XAttribute("ModuleName", "WorkspaceBarModule"),
                    new XAttribute("ModuleType", "Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.WorkspaceBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null")
                ),
                new XElement(ns + "ModuleInfo",
                    new XAttribute("Ref", "Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.xap"),
                    new XAttribute("InitializationMode", "OnDemand"),
                    new XAttribute("ModuleName", "StencilBarModule"),
                    new XAttribute("ModuleType", "Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.StencilBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null")
                )

With the Visual Studio samples you'll find an add-in "Paste XML as XElement" that creates this code out of XML.

Hope this helps.

abhishekkashyap27 · July 23rd, 2011, 06:13 AM

Hi Christian

If you see that the root element which I declared is "Modularity:ModuleCatalog" but when xml is generated, only "ModuleCatalog" comes. I debugged and checked and what I found is that ModuleCatalog is the local name and Modularity:ModuleCatalog is the name. Localname and name are both properties. I want name property to appear, to be precise I want Modularity:ModuleCatalog to appear instead of ModuleCatalog in the generated xml.
I hope you got my point. The output should be like this:

Code:

<Modularity:ModuleCatalog xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
                          xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
                          xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
                          xmlns:Modularity="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism">

    
    <Modularity:ModuleInfo Ref="Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.xap" 
                           ModuleName="WorkspaceBarModule" 
                           ModuleType="Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.WorkspaceBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null" />


    <Modularity:ModuleInfo Ref="Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.xap"
                           InitializationMode="OnDemand"
                           ModuleName="StencilBarModule"
                           ModuleType="Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.StencilBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null" />
                           

</Modularity:ModuleCatalog>

Thanks
Abhishek

ChristianNagel · July 23rd, 2011, 06:24 AM

ok, I see the point. Use this overload of CreateElement to create the root element:

Code:

            XmlElement root = xmldoc.CreateElement("Modularity", "ModuleCatalog", "clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism");

As an alternative with XElement:

Code:

            XNamespace Modularity = "clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism";
            XElement xml = new XElement(Modularity + "ModuleCatalog",
                new XAttribute("xmlns", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"),
                new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "x", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"),
                new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "sys", "clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"),
                new XAttribute(XNamespace.Xmlns + "Modularity", Modularity),
                new XElement(Modularity + "ModuleInfo",
                    new XAttribute("Ref", "Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.xap"),
                    new XAttribute("ModuleName", "WorkspaceBarModule"),
                    new XAttribute("ModuleType", "Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.WorkspaceBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null")
                ),
                new XElement(Modularity + "ModuleInfo",
                    new XAttribute("Ref", "Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.xap"),
                    new XAttribute("InitializationMode", "OnDemand"),
                    new XAttribute("ModuleName", "StencilBarModule"),
                    new XAttribute("ModuleType", "Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.StencilBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null")
                )
            );

abhishekkashyap27 · July 23rd, 2011, 07:25 AM

Hi

I did what you told me but it didn't solved the issue but it has added some more. Here is my modified code.

Code:

 private void CreateMyXML()
        {
            // creating xml document
            XmlDocument xmldoc = new XmlDocument();

            // creating root element
            XmlElement root = xmldoc.CreateElement("Modularity", "ModuleCatalog", "clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism");
            
            
            // Now add attributes to the root element
            root.SetAttribute("xmlns", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation");
            root.SetAttribute("xmlns:x", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml");
            root.SetAttribute("xmlns:sys", "clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib");
            //root.SetAttribute("xmlns:modularity", "clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism");
            
            xmldoc.AppendChild(root);

            XmlElement elem1 = xmldoc.CreateElement("Modularity:ModuleInfo");
            // Now add attributes to this element
            elem1.SetAttribute("Ref", "Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.xap");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleName", "WorkspaceBarModule");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleType", "Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.WorkspaceBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null");

            root.AppendChild(elem1);

            elem1 = xmldoc.CreateElement("Modularity:ModuleInfo");
            // Now add attributes to this element
            elem1.SetAttribute("Ref", "Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.xap");
            elem1.SetAttribute("InitializationMode", "OnDemand");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleName", "StencilBarModule");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleType", "Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.StencilBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null");

            root.AppendChild(elem1);
            string xmlOutput = xmldoc.OuterXml;

        }

Now the output which comes out is this:

Code:

<Modularity:ModuleCatalog xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib" xmlns:Modularity="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism"><ModuleInfo Ref="Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.xap" ModuleName="WorkspaceBarModule" ModuleType="Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.WorkspaceBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null" xmlns="" /><ModuleInfo Ref="Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.xap" InitializationMode="OnDemand" ModuleName="StencilBarModule" ModuleType="Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.StencilBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null" xmlns="" /></Modularity:ModuleCatalog>

Now what has happened is in both elements of my xml, it has added extra attribute "xmlns=""" , which shouldn't be there. Secondly my child element name is "ModuleInfo", which actually should be "Modularity:ModuleInfo"

The output has to be exactly like this:

Code:

<Modularity:ModuleCatalog xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
                          xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
                          xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
                          xmlns:Modularity="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism">

    
    <Modularity:ModuleInfo Ref="Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.xap" 
                           ModuleName="WorkspaceBarModule" 
                           ModuleType="Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.WorkspaceBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null" />


    <Modularity:ModuleInfo Ref="Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.xap"
                           InitializationMode="OnDemand"
                           ModuleName="StencilBarModule"
                           ModuleType="Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.StencilBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null" />
                           

</Modularity:ModuleCatalog>

The other thing which I dont understand is why the compiler is not taking the 'NAME' attribute , instead of taking local name?? Seeing the other way around, it needs to take the full string value.

-- Abhishek

abhishekkashyap27 · July 23rd, 2011, 08:13 AM

Hey Christian

I forgot to mention that using the XElement & XAttribute classes, the output comes out perfectly. The code which you wrote works like charm. :) But I am very keen to know how to fix this thing the way I am trying to do, that is not using these new classes.

Thanks a ton
Abhishek

ChristianNagel · July 23rd, 2011, 08:56 AM

Hi Abhishek,

The child elements must be created with the prefix and namespace as well. I think this is it:

Code:

            // creating xml document
            XmlDocument xmldoc = new XmlDocument();
            string modNamespace = "clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism";

            // creating root element
            XmlElement root = xmldoc.CreateElement("Modularity", "ModuleCatalog", modNamespace);


            // Now add attributes to the root element
            root.SetAttribute("xmlns", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation");
            root.SetAttribute("xmlns:x", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml");
            root.SetAttribute("xmlns:sys", "clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib");
            //root.SetAttribute("xmlns:modularity", "clr-namespace:Microsoft.Practices.Prism.Modularity;assembly=Microsoft.Practices.Prism");

            xmldoc.AppendChild(root);

            XmlElement elem1 = xmldoc.CreateElement("Modularity", "ModuleInfo", modNamespace);
            // Now add attributes to this element
            elem1.SetAttribute("Ref", "Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.xap");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleName", "WorkspaceBarModule");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleType", "Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule.WorkspaceBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.WorkspaceBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null");

            root.AppendChild(elem1);

            elem1 = xmldoc.CreateElement("Modularity", "ModuleInfo", modNamespace);
            // Now add attributes to this element
            elem1.SetAttribute("Ref", "Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.xap");
            elem1.SetAttribute("InitializationMode", "OnDemand");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleName", "StencilBarModule");
            elem1.SetAttribute("ModuleType", "Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule.StencilBarModule, Infor.PLM.Modules.StencilBarModule, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=null");

            root.AppendChild(elem1);
            string xmlOutput = xmldoc.OuterXml;

abhishekkashyap27 · July 23rd, 2011, 12:11 PM

Thanks a lot buddy! :) This trick worked!