C# xmlReader simple XML

Question

I've got simple XML like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ftp>
    <address>ftp://ftp.example.com/</address>
    <user>jondoe</user>
    <password>Password123</password>
</ftp>

And I wanted to use this C# code:

using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(xmlPath))
{
    reader.ReadToFollowing("address");
    string ftpAddress = reader.ReadElementContentAsString();
    reader.ReadToFollowing("user");
    string ftpUser = reader.ReadElementContentAsString();
    reader.ReadToFollowing("password");
    string ftpPw = reader.ReadElementContentAsString();
}

It's working fine when I want to read only one content, like address but it fails when I want to read more/next ones. I thought this would be logical but it seems like it's not. How to read that XML and all elements of it: address, user and password? I would like to use XmlReader for that.

Have you considered creating a basic view model, then deserialize the xml to your view model? — KnottytOmo
– KnottytOmo, Commented Oct 16, 2014 at 13:26
I just want a simple method to read that XML. Nothing extensive like building view model for XML. — Cassie Kasandr
– Cassie Kasandr, Commented Oct 16, 2014 at 13:27

Denis Thomas · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-16 14:02:16Z

1

The simplest form I can think of would be this one:

XElement xml = XElement.Parse(File.ReadAllText(xmlPath));
var ftpAddress = xml.Element("address").Value;
var ftpUser = xml.Element("user").Value;
var ftpPwd = xml.Element("user").Value;

Of course you should add some safety by checking for null values and if the file exists..

Update:

I would implement a failsafe version this way:

if (!File.Exists(xmlPath))
    throw new FileNotFoundException(string.Format("The FTP configuration file {0} is missing", xmlPath));

XElement xml = XElement.Parse(File.ReadAllText(xmlPath));
var ftpAddress = GetConfigValue(xml, "address");
var ftpUser = GetConfigValue(xml, "user");
var ftpPwd = GetConfigValue(xml, "password");

With GetConfigValue like this:

private static string GetConfigValue(XContainer parent, XName name)
{
    var element = parent.Element(name);

    if (element == null)
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("Invalid configuration file, missing element {0}", name));

    return element.Value;
}

edited Oct 16, 2014 at 14:02

answered Oct 16, 2014 at 13:32

Denis Thomas

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2 Comments

Cassie Kasandr Over a year ago

thank you. It's working pretty well. And could you please tell me how you would do those safety checks the simple/elegant way?

Cassie Kasandr Over a year ago

Thank you Denis Thomas, that is all I need!

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