Correct way of parsing XMP XML metadata attached to the end of a PDF file? [closed]

Question

I have a PDF with some meta data in XMP XML format attached to the end. What is the correct way of parsing and using this meta data?

At the minute i have a working solution using C99, parsing each character in the file, starting at the beginning and using loops until i reach a tag im after and then recording the contents until i reach the closing tag. I can't see this as the best way of doing things.

I'm now rewriting this program using C# + Mono (not .NET) and i wonder if there is a magic framework class for this task instead of just imitating the C99 version? (Also, i can only rely on third party libraries if they don't contain any p/invoke stuff, etc.)

I'm using Mono because i need this app to be cross-platform.

Answer 1

Adobe has published the XMP specification. Give it a try. You need to find out what XMP schema the XML uses and parse it accordingly.

Answer 2

If you can get the complete XML as a string, you can use XmlDocument.Load to get the complete XML in memory for querying.

You can then use XPath with the XmlDocument.SelectNodes method in order to get to your data.