ASP.NET xslt transformation

Question

So I am using the below code to do a xslt transformation. But I am pretty new to ASP.NET development so the errors are slightly misleading. This code is generating an error that states it doesn't understand physical paths and only virtual paths. What is a virtual path and how do I make one from a specified physical path?

<%@ Master Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Site.master.cs" Inherits="ViewerASP.SiteMaster" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Xml" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Xml.Xsl" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Xml.XPath" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
<head runat="server">
    <title>Viewer</title>
    <link href="~/Styles/Site.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <script language="C#" runat="server">
        public void Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs E) {
            string xmlPath = Server.MapPath("physicaladdresshere");
            string xslPath = Server.MapPath("physicaladdresshere");
            //Instantiate the XPathDocument Class
            XPathDocument doc = new XPathDocument(xmlPath);
            //INstantiate the XslTransform Class
            XslTransform transform = new XslTransform();
            transform.Load(xslPath);
            //Custom format the indenting of the output document using XmlTextWriter
            XmlTextWriter writer = new XmlTextWriter(Response.Output);
            writer.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
            writer.Indentation=4;
            transform.Transform(doc,null,writer);
        }
    </script>
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="HeadContent" runat="server">
    </asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</head>
        <div class="main">
            <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="MainContent" runat="server"/>
        </div>
</body>
</html>

How does your physicaladdresshere look like? Is it relative or absolute? If relative - to what directory? — Andrei
– Andrei, Commented May 22, 2014 at 16:51
Just as an example it would look something like this: C:\Users\kyle\Desktop\file.xml. I tried hardcoding this and it gave me errors about invalid escape character sequence so I changed it to this: C:\\Users\\kyle\\Desktop\\file.xml and received the error original posted about. — Kyle
– Kyle, Commented May 22, 2014 at 16:57

Andrei · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-22 17:00:10Z

1

Server.MapPath maps virtual path - that is path in a virtual IIS directory - to the physical path on a server. Apparently you do not need that, since you already have an absolute server-side path. Just remove these Server.MapPath calls:

string xmlPath = "C:\\Users\\kyle\\Desktop\\file.xml";
...

answered May 22, 2014 at 17:00

Andrei

56.8k10 gold badges92 silver badges114 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

5 Comments

Kyle Over a year ago

Ok I think I follow that. But would this work if I have a web form where the user browses to their xml file? Can I retrieve their local path from that. I'm trying to do my transformation client side.

Andrei Over a year ago

Oh, than I am afraid that will not work at all. You cannot access file system of the end user - that would be a huge security breach. Also note that C# code is something that is run on the server, not on the remote user computer. The best you can do is give users a file upload page, where they upload files and you run transformations on the server-side

Kyle Over a year ago

Oh alright I understand. There is a asp server then can run locally though right? Under add/remove programs/features? Is there anyway to just run the code through the c#? So we would have to create a web server that accepts the uploaded file and then provides that url back?

Andrei Over a year ago

@Kyle, you would need a web server anyway - this is how web applications work. And yes, the actual process might be: 1 - users navigate to the page, upload files; 2 - server runs the transformation; 3 - users receive a link to download new file, or maybe just get a file back in a response right away. THat is just an option though - i have no idea what you app is about

Kyle Over a year ago

Basically the whole idea is to take an xml file, apply the xsl tranform and render that page back. I've successfully done it python, java and visual c#. But, we are trying to make something cross platform that can run in a browser.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

ASP.NET xslt transformation

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related