Reading from XML file where tags have an id

[mike55]

Hi all

 

I have the following xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<root>
 <data id="Home1">
   <text>
     <![CDATA[
     Using your web browser or mobile phone, Clubtext allows you tosend SMS <br>
     text messages to your customers, teams, staff, or club members in an easy<br>
     to use cost effective manner. 
     
     <p>Clubtext includes an administrative set of features to allow you to <br>
     manage customer/membership details and history.]]></text>
 </data>

 <data id="Home2">
   <text>
     <![CDATA[
       This is the data that belongs to home 2.  Hello world, how are you today?      
     ]]>
   </text>
 </data>
</root>

 

In the long term there will be a lot more information and tags in this file. What I want to do is to be able to read the data from the text tag where the id of the data tag is equal to a value that I have specified.

 

Here is the code that I am using to access the xml file and read from it:

Private Sub GenerateXMLMessageBody()
       Dim m_xmlr As XmlTextReader
       m_xmlr = New XmlTextReader("C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SuretxtWebSolution\Suretxt\InformationContent.xml")
       m_xmlr.WhitespaceHandling = WhitespaceHandling.None
       m_xmlr.Read()
       m_xmlr.Read()
       'Load the Loop
       While Not m_xmlr.EOF
           'Go to the name tag
           m_xmlr.Read()
           'if not start element exit while loop
           If Not m_xmlr.IsStartElement() Then
               Exit While
           End If
           'Get the Gender Attribute Value
           Dim genderAttribute = m_xmlr.GetAttribute("id")
           'Read elements firstname and lastname
           m_xmlr.Read()
           main.InnerHtml = m_xmlr.ReadElementString("text").ToString
       End While
       'close the reader
       m_xmlr.Close()
   End Sub

 

So my question is, how can I adjust the above vb.net code so that I could in one instance specify that I want to access the text where the id of the data tag is "Home2"

[mike55]

Found a solution, changed the code for reading the xml to

Dim dsDataset As New DataSet

dsDataset.ReadXml("C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SuretxtWebSolution\Suretxt\InformationContent.xml")

 

Dim row As Array = dsDataset.Tables(0).Select("Page='Home3'")

main.InnerHtml = row(0).itemArray(1).ToString

[code]

 

and added a tag <page> to identify between collections of tags. So far the solution appears to work.

 

Mike55.

[Nerseus]

Since you don't mind reading the Xml all at once, try this (my VB syntax may not be right):

Dim xml = As New XmlDocument()
xml.Load("C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SuretxtWebSolution\Suretxt\Infor mationContent.xml")

Dim nodeToFind As String = "Home2"
Dim text As String = String.Empty
Dim node As XmlNode = xml.SelectSingleNode("//" + nodeToFind)
If (node Is Nothing) Then
   MessageBox.Show("Couldn't find node")
Else
   Dim textNode As XmlNode = node.SelectSingleNode("text")
   If (textNode Is Nothing) Then
       MessageBox("Node didn't contain a ""text"" node")
   Else
       text = textNode.InnerText
   End If
End If

 

Or, if you KNOW that the node and text nodes exist:

Dim xml = As New XmlDocument()
xml.Load("C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SuretxtWebSolution\Suretxt\Infor mationContent.xml")

Dim nodeToFind As String = "Home2"
Dim text As String = xml.SelectSingleNode("//" + nodeToFind).SelectSingleNode("text").InnerText

 

-ner

[alreadyused]

retrieve xml node based on attribute value

 

Mike, based on your original post, you are trying to select a parent node "data" with an attribute "id" that has a value "Home2", then select it's child node "text" and get it's innertext.

 

It looks like in an earlier post that you might have changed your xdoc? Anyway, if I understand your original needs correctly, you can do this:

 

dim xd as new xmldocument
dim path as string = "blahblahblah"
xd.load(path)

dim xn as xmlnode = xd.selectsinglenode("/root/data[@id='Home2']/text")
dim inText as string = xn.InnerText

 

The point is that since you know the node/tag's name ("data"), the attribute's name ("id") and the attribute's value ("Home2") that is the parent to the text node you are seeking, your xPath string is:

"data[@id=Home2]"

 

Keep in mind that it is case sensitive; if you put "home2" your xn=nothing

 

here's a good link for some simple xPath commands:

http://www.w3schools.com/xpath/xpath_syntax.asp

 

Hope that helps (and isn't too late)! :-D

Edited December 20, 2006 by alreadyused