Saving XML data to an XML File from Save As Dialog

[Kedhrin]

Hello all,

 

I'm trying to write an XML to a file from the save as.

 

My program reads an XML file, loads all the values in from the Attributes in the XML file, then it needs to save it only editing the Attributes frome the specific objects in the xml, in the exact same form it was read, just with the new Attributes.

 

I've been searching everywhere, and I can't find help anywhere. All sites are always talking about database editing - i am not connecting to a database in any way, I am just editing a specific type of XML file.

 

Every single thing works in the program except writing to a NEW xml file.

 

I don't want to write to the same XML file, or to a predefined "file.xml" i need it to collect the info from SaveDialog1.Filename

 

All the info i find on the net is all for database or to save it to a specific file pre-defined in code. I need it to get the new filename the user puts in from the save as dialog.

 

this is my loading the XML file and getting the attributes.

 

 

   Public Sub Button3_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
       OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog()
       If ShowDialog.OK Then

           TextFile.Text = OpenFileDialog1.FileName
           Dim m_xmlr As XmlTextReader
           m_xmlr = New XmlTextReader(OpenFileDialog1.FileName)
           m_xmlr.WhitespaceHandling = WhitespaceHandling.None
           m_xmlr.Read()
           m_xmlr.Read()
           m_xmlr.Read()
           m_xmlr.Read()
           m_xmlr.Read()
           While Not m_xmlr.EOF
               m_xmlr.Read()
               If Not m_xmlr.IsStartElement() Then
                   Exit While
               End If
               Dim hTop = m_xmlr.GetAttribute("hTopColor")
               Dim hBottom = m_xmlr.GetAttribute("hBottomColor")
               Dim sLight = m_xmlr.GetAttribute("dDifuse")
               Dim sDirection = m_xmlr.GetAttribute("dDirection")
               Dim fDensity = m_xmlr.GetAttribute("fDensity")
               Dim fStart = m_xmlr.GetAttribute("fStart")
               Dim fColor = m_xmlr.GetAttribute("fColor")
               Dim TopColor As String
               Dim Topstrs() As String
               TopColor = hTop
               Topstrs = TopColor.Split(",")
               Button4.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(Topstrs(0), Topstrs(1), Topstrs(2))
               ColorDialog1.Color = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(Topstrs(0), Topstrs(1), Topstrs(2))
               Dim BottomColor As String
               Dim Bottomstrs() As String
               BottomColor = hBottom
               Bottomstrs = BottomColor.Split(",")
               Button5.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(Bottomstrs(0), Bottomstrs(1), Bottomstrs(2))
               ColorDialog2.Color = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(Bottomstrs(0), Bottomstrs(1), Bottomstrs(2))
               Dim sColor As String
               Dim sstrs() As String
               sColor = sLight
               sstrs = sColor.Split(",")
               Button6.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(sstrs(0), sstrs(1), sstrs(2))
               ColorDialog3.Color = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(sstrs(0), sstrs(1), sstrs(2))
               Dim Colorf As String
               Dim fstrs() As String
               Colorf = fColor
               fstrs = Colorf.Split(",")
               Button7.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(fstrs(0), fstrs(1), fstrs(2))
               ColorDialog4.Color = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(fstrs(0), fstrs(1), fstrs(2))
               Dim sDir As String
               Dim sDirstrs() As String
               sDir = sDirection
               sDirstrs = sDir.Split(",")
               X.Text = sDirstrs(0)
               Y.Text = sDirstrs(1)
               Z.Text = sDirstrs(2)
               Density.Text = fDensity
               Start.Text = fStart
           End While
           m_xmlr.Close()
       End If
       If ShowDialog.Cancel Then
           Exit Sub
       End If
   End Sub

 

I need to know how to get the parsed data and put it back into the XML code into a NEW document. I have found info on this, including on the MSDN but it doesn't provide enough details ever and doesn't go into detail with examples. I am very very new to VB (I've only been using it for 2 days), so please give me some easy-to-understand information.

 

I've gotten this far into it, its a simple application, i got everything loaded, all the values changing properly etc. Now all I need to do is save it to an XML file.

 

if you can help me, please get back to me ASAP.

 

I will repost in this thread with the solution as well as a code example that lists how to do it so other people who are trying to do what I am doing might have a better chance of finding it.

 

THis is very BASE level xml editing, please help me :(

 

I'd prefer a repost on here,

but you can e-mail me

contact me on aim - Kedhrin

msn - Kedhrin@yahoo.com

ICQ - 52477482

YAHOO - Kedhrin@yahoo.com

 

the only applications i'll be writing in visual basic all detail with specific XML flies, not ever connecting to a database. I don't HAVE to do this, but it helps me out at work BIG TIME.

 

once I figure out how to save these files, I can probably edit future XML files without much problems.

 

 

I'm using Visual Basic Express Beta.

 

Thank you!!!

[FZelle]

First of all, i don't belive that that code is opening a file because this

OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog()
If ShowDialog.OK Then

Is wrong.

it should be

If ( OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK ) Then

 

Secondly, if the File i not to big, why don't you read it into a DataSet.

This has nothing to do with DataBase. A DataSet is a inmemory DataBaselike

representation of XML.

 

You can read and write the XML like this:

Public Sub Button3_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
 Dim OpenFileDialog1 as OpenFileDialog()
 OpenFileDialog1.Filter="XML-File (*.xml)|*.xml"
 
 If ( OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK ) Then
   Dim myDataSet as New DataSet()
   myDataSet.ReadXml( OpenFileDialog1.FileName )

' Insert the work here    


   Dim SaveFileDialog1 as SaveFileDialog()
   SaveFileDialog1.Filter="XML-File (*.xml)|*.xml"
   If ( SaveFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK ) Then
     myDataSet.WriteXml( SaveFileDialog1.FileName )
 End If

 

After Reading the XML to a dataset, there will be some Tables in it.

if you could post a part of the XML it would be easy to do this

[Kedhrin]

Thanks for the reply!

 

The file loading is correct, it loads perfect every time I open the load file dialog. Maybe this method is something new they put into Visual Basic Express.

 

I will try what you said.

 

Here is my xml document

 

please note i had to edit the actual names of the fields because I am behind an NDA, but whatever you tell me about it I can change back again to the fileds they actually are :)

 

[highlight=xml]

- <xml>

- <FIELD1 state1="stateofstate1">

- <TYPE1 type="type1type">

- <TYPE2Info structure1="1" structure2="1" structure3="999999" structure4="1000" structure5="1">

- <TYPE3 dur="999999">

<EDITME hTopColor="235, 170, 220" hBottomColor="80, 70, 50" dDifuse="187, 187, 243" dDirection="-0.6, -0.4, 0.6" fDensity="0.012"

fStart="-50" fColor="77,63,69" DONTTOUCHME1="250" DONTTOUCHME2="0, 0, 0" DONTTOUCHME3="0.5" DONTTOUCHME4="0.05" />

</TYPE3>

</TYPE2Info>

</TYPE1>

</FIELD1>

</xml>

[/highlight]

 

anyways, the areas inside EDITME are the ones i'm trying to edit the values of

hTopColor, hBottomColor and dDifuse are all RGB Values, i got them to load into the program, they even change the backcolor of my color changing buttons upon load, as well as the values of the ColoDialogs for each button :)

 

dDirection is an X Y and Z input fields, these are all parsed (look at the loading info i put and you can see how i parsed them, as well as the RGB values, since by default all the color values in VB are read as ARGB not straight RGB)

 

fDensity and fStart are just 2 other numeric fields i input info into.

 

anyways, i'll try what you told me to do! I hope it works :)

Edited June 30, 2008 by PlausiblyDamp

[PlausiblyDamp]

It will always open the file, even if you cancel out of the dialog - your if statement is just checking ShowDialog.Ok as a constant and not comparing it to any particular value. You should go with the code posted by FZelle.

 

A dataset might help you but it can result in large memory overheads and may not be the most suitable method in this case. Have you looked at the System.Xml.XmlDocument class?

 

Not tested the following but you would be able to load / modify and save using code similar to:

       If ( OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK ) Then
           Dim x As New System.Xml.XmlDocument
           x.Load(OpenFileDialog1.FileName)
           Dim ele As Xml.XmlElement = x.GetElementById("EDITME")
           ele.Attributes("hTopColor").Value = "blah blah blah"
           x.Save("")
       End If

[Kedhrin]

well, i got it to save the XML data to a file, but it doesn't do it when i want it to :P

 

basically, the way you wrote it out didn't work (must be something with visual basic express edition)

 

some of the classes you listed didn't exist in it.

 

 

i had to creat my save file dialog like this

 

           SaveFileDialog1.ShowDialog()
           If ShowDialog.OK Then
               m_xmlrDataset.WriteXml(SaveFileDialog1.FileName)
           End If

 

and to load my Dataset, i couldn't do a

   Dim myDataSet as New DataSet()
   myDataSet.ReadXml( OpenFileDialog1.FileName )

 

I had to do it like this

 

first, go to Project->Add Class

then i added a new DataSet to the project

it was set as DataSet1()

 

on the "Load" dialog, i had to declare it like this underneath the declaration of

m_xmlr

          Dim m_xmlr As XmlTextReader
           Dim m_xmlrDataset As New DataSet1()

 

it doesn't load the data if i press Cancel

(when i was getting the loading to work, i constantly had a feedback to a console telling me what was loaded, what wasn't, etc.)

 

the saving WORKS, but at the wrong time, i need it to save when i pres the save button.

 

right now, when you load a file it immediately pops up a box for the save dialog, you save it as whatever file, and it writes the xml back in PERFECT form.

 

 

so the saving is working,

now the questtion is, how do i get it to open the save dialog ONLY when i press the save as button. Right now i had that save dialog info

           SaveFileDialog1.ShowDialog()
           If ShowDialog.OK Then
               m_xmlrDataset.WriteXml(SaveFileDialog1.FileName)
           End If

at the bottom of the loading, so i know that is why it is loading.

 

when i try to put that code into the save dialog button click area, i get this error.

"Name 'm_xmlrDataSet' is not declared"

 

now i know it is because it isn't declared into this Sub field,

 

my problem is, I don't know how to declare it and it get the what is loaded into m_xmlrDataset from the other Sub's

 

any ideas?

[Kedhrin]

PlausiblyDamp,

 

I have tried a similar example to that before

 

the problem comes at the last line

" x.Save("<output filename goes here>") "

and the value line " ele.Attributes("hTopColor").Value = "blah blah blah" "

 

I need the value to bee generated by the changes i do in the editor, not what i put in code.

 

the same thing with the save, since it is a Save As, it needs to be user generated not in code outputted to a file, though I might do that as a result, that would just simply cripple the pipeline and i wouldn't even bother using the app probably if it did that.

[PlausiblyDamp]

Couple of modifications...

If (OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog() = DialogResult.OK) Then
   Dim x As New System.Xml.XmlDocument
   x.Load(OpenFileDialog1.FileName)
   Dim ele As Xml.XmlNodeList = x.GetElementsByTagName("EDITME")
   ele(0).Attributes("hTopColor").Value = "blah blah blah"
           
   If SaveFileDialog1.ShowDialog() =  ShowDialog.OK Then
       x.Save(SaveFileDialog1.FileName)
   End If
End If

Happily loads the file and saves it out to the specified name.

If you want to load with one button and save with another then declare the document at the form level rather than in the sub.

I've attached a quick sample of a working version of my code. With separate Load / Save routines.

WindowsApplication1.zip

[Kedhrin]

Ok, that makes a lot more sense, however...

 

i don't understand in this line

" ele(0).Attributes("hTopColor").Value = "blah blah blah" "

 

when i ran something like this, it said it didn't reference to an object.

 

so I understand what you posted vaguley, however i need hemiTop to represent the value.

 

i put this in

    ele(0).Attributes("hemiTopColor").Value = hemiTop

 

and at the form1 base i put

   Dim hemiTop As Xml.XmlAttribute

i know i'm doing something wrong, at the value = part it says hemiTop cannot be used as a String. I don't really understand this (i know what a string is, and i don't know why that can't be used as a string).

 

I've been trying different writes and ways of writing it and im not comming up with any luck.

 

basically, hemiTop will be representing the value changes, so it needs to always write to hemiTop and hemiTop will be written back in with its values assigned to it, how do ig et hemiTop to be recognized as a value holder?

[PlausiblyDamp]

The line

Dim ele As Xml.XmlNodeList = x.GetElementsByTagName("EDITME")

will return a list of the elements called EDITME

ele(0).Attributes("hTopColor").Value = "blah blah blah"

means take the first element, ele(0), and find the Attribute called hTopColor and set it's value to the string "blah blah blah".

You don't need to create a new object to assign to the attribute - just a valid string. I've updated my sample to change a button colour and also write out a modified file. The basics are there - you will just need to adapt them to your specific scenario

WindowsApplication1.zip

[FZelle]

It seems to me that you start programming .NET and you

have no clue what you are doing.

 

For ex. if you are not able to do

Dim myDataSet as New DataSet()
myDataSet.ReadXml( OpenFileDialog1.FileName )

You are probaly missing a

using System.Data;

These are basics, and if you don't know this, how do you want to master

the XML-Problem afterwords?

[Kedhrin]

The line

Dim ele As Xml.XmlNodeList = x.GetElementsByTagName("EDITME")

will return a list of the elements called EDITME

ele(0).Attributes("hTopColor").Value = "blah blah blah"

means take the first element, ele(0), and find the Attribute called hTopColor and set it's value to the string "blah blah blah".

You don't need to create a new object to assign to the attribute - just a valid string. I've updated my sample to change a button colour and also write out a modified file. The basics are there - you will just need to adapt them to your specific scenario

 

 

Hey PlausiblyDamped thanks for the info :)

 

i was able to use the example you gave me, plug it in over my code and work with it and discover some new things along the way. Everything works flawlessly now.

 

and no Fzelle, I have no clue what i'm doing, like i said I had only been using VB for a day. But now i understand it a lot more and declaring things, I didn't have the time to slowly learn it, so I had to cram as much as I could in a few days.

 

When i get home tonight I'll post my code in example format for anyone else who has the problems i'm having.

[pelikan]

could be amusing in a tragic sort of way