Create Pull Insert XML Data Out From Scratch

Introduction

Today, in this article let's play around with one of the interesting and most useful concepts in XML in C#.

Question: What is create/pull/insert XML data out from scratch?

In simple terms "It provides flexibility to create a new XML structure, select the data from the created structure and insert new elements to that structure."

Step 1: Create a new "ASP.NET Web Application", as in:

Step 2: Add a new XML file item to the project and name it as Employee.xml.

Step 3: The complete code of Default.aspx looks like this:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="CreateXMLApp._Default" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

</head>

<body>

<div>

<table>

<tr>

<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text="Create/Insert/Pull XML Data Out from scratch"

Font-Bold="true" Font-Size="Large" Font-Names="Verdana" ForeColor="Maroon"></asp:Label>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Create XML Data" Font-Names="Verdana"

Width="213px" BackColor="Orange" Font-Bold="True" OnClick="Button1_Click" Style="margin-top: 5%" />

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<asp:Button ID="Button2" runat="server" Text="Select Data" Font-Names="Verdana" Width="213px"

BackColor="Orange" Font-Bold="True" OnClick="Button2_Click" Style="margin-top: 5%" />

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<br />

<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" BackColor="LightGoldenrodYellow" BorderColor="Tan"

BorderWidth="1px" CellPadding="2" EnableModelValidation="True" ForeColor="Black"

GridLines="None" AutoGenerateColumns="False">

</PagerStyle>

<asp:BoundField DataField="Id" HeaderText="Id" ReadOnly="true" />

<asp:BoundField DataField="FirstName" HeaderText="First Name" />

<asp:BoundField DataField="LastName" HeaderText="Last Name" />

<asp:BoundField DataField="Age" HeaderText="Age" />

</Columns>

</asp:GridView>

</td>

<legend>Insert XML Data</legend>

<table>

<tr>

<asp:Label ID="Label2" runat="server" Text="Insert XML Data" Font-Bold="true" Font-Size="Large"

Font-Names="Verdana" ForeColor="Maroon"></asp:Label>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:Label ID="Label7" runat="server" Text="Please Enter Id" Font-Size="Large" Font-Names="Verdana"

Font-Italic="true"></asp:Label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox4" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:Label ID="Label3" runat="server" Text="Please Enter FirstName" Font-Size="Large"

Font-Names="Verdana" Font-Italic="true"></asp:Label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:Label ID="Label4" runat="server" Text="Please Enter LastName" Font-Size="Large"

Font-Names="Verdana" Font-Italic="true"></asp:Label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox2" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:Label ID="Label6" runat="server" Text="Please Enter Age" Font-Size="Large" Font-Names="Verdana"

Font-Italic="true"></asp:Label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox3" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<asp:Button ID="Button3" runat="server" Text="Insert XML Data" Font-Names="Verdana"

Width="213px" BackColor="Orange" Font-Bold="True" OnClick="Button3_Click" />

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</fieldset>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<asp:Label ID="Label5" runat="server" Font-Bold="true" Font-Names="Verdana"></asp:Label>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</div>

</center>

</form>

</body>

</html>

Step 4: The complete code of Default.aspx.cs looks like this:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Xml;

using System.Xml.Linq;

namespace CreateXMLApp

{

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page

{

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

}

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();

XmlDeclaration dec = xmlDoc.CreateXmlDeclaration("1.0", null, null); xmlDoc.AppendChild(dec);

XmlElement rootEmployeesElement = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Employees");

xmlDoc.AppendChild(rootEmployeesElement);

XmlElement employeeElement = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Employee");

XmlElement idElement = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Id");

idElement.InnerText = "1"; XmlElement firstNameElement = xmlDoc.CreateElement("FirstName");

firstNameElement.InnerText = "Vijay"; XmlElement lastNameElement = xmlDoc.CreateElement("LastName");

lastNameElement.InnerText = "Prativadi";

XmlElement ageElement = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Age");

ageElement.InnerText = "26"; employeeElement.AppendChild(idElement);

employeeElement.AppendChild(firstNameElement); employeeElement.AppendChild(lastNameElement);

employeeElement.AppendChild(ageElement);

rootEmployeesElement.AppendChild(employeeElement);

xmlDoc.Save(@"c:\users\administrator\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\CreateXMLApp\CreateXMLApp\Employee.xml");

Label5.Text = "XML Created Sucessfully"; Label5.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Green;

}

protected void Button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

XDocument document = XDocument.Load(@"C:\Users\Administrator\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\CreateXMLApp\CreateXMLApp\Employee.xml");

var query = from r in document.Descendants("Employee") select new

{

Id = r.Element("Id").Value, LastName = r.Element("LastName").Value, FirstName = r.Element("FirstName").Value, Age = r.Element("Age").Value };

GridView1.DataSource = query;

GridView1.DataBind();

}

protected void Button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox4.Text) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox1.Text) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox2.Text) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox3.Text))

{

Label5.Text = "Please Enter Some Values";

Label5.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Red;

}

else

{

XDocument document = XDocument.Load(Server.MapPath("Employee.xml"));

document.Element("Employees").Add(new XElement("Employee", new XElement("Id", TextBox4.Text), new XElement("FirstName", TextBox1.Text), new XElement("LastName", TextBox2.Text), new XElement("Age", TextBox3.Text)));

document.Save(Server.MapPath("Employee.xml")); Label5.Text = "Data Inserted Successfully";

Label5.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Green;

TextBox4.Text = string.Empty;

TextBox1.Text = string.Empty;

TextBox2.Text = string.Empty;

TextBox3.Text = string.Empty;

}

Step 5: The output of the application looks like this:

Step 6: The output of creating new XML structure looks like this:

Step 7: The output of created new XML structure looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<FirstName>Vijay</FirstName>

<LastName>Prativadi</LastName>

</Employee>

</Employees>

Step 8: The output of selecting data from XML structure looks like this:

Step 9: The output of inserting data to XML structure looks like this:

Step 10: The output of selecting data from XML structure looks like this:

Step 11: The output of inserted data to XML structure looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<FirstName>Vijay</FirstName>

<LastName>Prativadi</LastName>

</Employee>

<FirstName>Swetha</FirstName>

<LastName>Prativadi</LastName>

</Employee>

</Employees>

I hope this article is useful for you.