TextBox.Text to XML file

Duane

I have a form with nearly 100 textboxes on it!. I know this seems like too many but there it is. The problem I have is, after text has been placed in the textboxes, I need a way to save this data to an XML file or something simpler if possible. I have tried to do this before and I may have succeeded but I can't remember what I did (old-timer's disease). If anyone can offer a suggestion for a decent primer in this particular area I would be grateful. Please do not direct me to the MSDN files as I don't understand half f what they are saying. My grounding in VB is a little shaky having largely been acquired "on the fly".

7 Replies

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Vulpes14y ago
Accepted answer
Although you could use an XmlDocument, I'd stick with LINQ to XML which I think is much easier than the previous ways of reading and writing XML content.

The code to repopulate the textboxes from the file would be:

Dim root As XElement = XElement.Load("textboxes.xml")

For Each panel As XElement In root.Elements
Dim panelName As String = panel.Name.ToString
Dim pnl As Panel = CType(Me.Controls(panelName), Panel)

For Each tb As XElement In panel.Elements
pnl.Controls(tb.Name.ToString).Text = tb.Value
Next
Next
Duane14y ago
Thanks again!!! That was awesome. My project is complete and I can publish. Thank you for all your efforts without which I would still be floundering.
Duane14y ago
OK now that I've got it writing properly, how do I reverse it and read it back in. I thought I had this part already solved in a previous project, but I was going from XMl to a datagrid in that solution and the methods I used don't transfer. Do I need to declare and load an XmlDocument?
If so, thats not a problem, its getting to the individual nodes afterward thats the problem.
Duane14y ago
Thanks. That worked. What would I do without you? (I hope I can find out someday!!)
Vulpes14y ago
A little more complicated but, yes, you need to use the panel's Controls collection rather than the form's:

Dim root As New XElement("TextBoxes")

For Each ctrl As Control In Me.Controls
If TypeOf (ctrl) Is Panel Then
Dim pnl As XElement = New XElement(ctrl.Name)
For Each c As Control In ctrl.Controls
If TypeOf (c) Is TextBox Then
pnl.Add(New XElement(c.Name, c.Text))
End If
Next
root.Add(pnl)
End If
Next

root.Save("textboxes.xml")
Duane14y ago
I thought it would be something like that. I should have gone ahead and went with it. However, these textboxes are all contained in panels, so:

For Each c As Control In Me.Container.Controls ?
.
.
.
Vulpes14y ago
As it's easy to do this I'll just give you some code.

The following assumes that all the textboxes have been placed directly on the form and not in some container such as a Panel or GroupBox:

Dim root As New XElement("TextBoxes")

For Each c As Control In Me.Controls
If TypeOf (c) Is TextBox Then
root.Add(New XElement(c.Name, c.Text))
End If
Next

root.Save("textboxes.xml") ' I would use a full path here