How should I bind a web UI against XML attributes?
-
02-07-2019 - |
Question
I want to bind my UI against a collection of XElements and their properties on a webpage. Hypothetically, this could be for any object that represents an XML tree. I'm hoping that there might be a better way of doing this.
Should I use an XPath query to get out the elements of the collection and the attribute values of each (in this case) XElement? Is there a type of object that is designed to ease databinding against XML?
<% foreach(var x in element.Descendants())
{%>
<%= DateTime.Parse(x.Attribute["Time"]).ToShortDate() %>
<% } %>
<%-- excuse me, I just vomited a little in my mouth --%>
Solution
I normally use a "placeholder" class with [XmlRoot], [XmlElement], [XmlAttribute] and I have the xml passed to a deserializer which gives me an object of the type of the placeholder. Once this is done, the only thing left to do is some basic DataBinding to a strongly typed object.
Here is a sample class that is "Xml Enabled":
[XmlRoot(ElementName = "Car", IsNullable = false, Namespace="")]
public class Car
{
[XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "Model")]
public string Model { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "Make")]
public string Make { get; set ;}
}
And here is how to deserialize it properly from a file:
public Car ReadXml(string fileLocation)
{
XmlSerializer carXml = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Car));
FileStream fs = File.OpenRead(fileLocation);
Car result = imageConfig.Deserialize(fs) as Car;
return result;
}
Of course, you could replace the FileStream by a MemoryStream to read the Xml directly from memory.
Once in the Html, it would translate to something like this:
<!-- It is assumed that MyCar is a public property of the current page. -->
<div>
Car Model : <%= MyCar.Model %> <br/>
Car Make : <%= MyCar.Make %>
</div>