XML puzzle - why the null element?

Question

can anyone tell me why, given the following XDocument contents

<AddOrderResult xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <ErrorMessage xmlns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/appulsive.Intertek.LIMSService">, Fehler in der Belegerfassung Verkauf
Die Kontokorrentdaten konnten nicht gelesen werden.
(Exception of type 'Sagede.OfficeLine.Wawi.BelegEngine.RecordsetEmptyException' was thrown.)</ErrorMessage>
</AddOrderResult>

and the following C# code

    var resultElement =xmlResponse.Element("AddOrderResult");
    var errorMessage = resultElement.Element("ErrorMessage");

where xmlResponse is the XDocument object in question, resultElement is a valid XElement but errorMessage is always null? Is it, for example, something to do with the ErrorMessage namespace?

TIA.

Can you show how you are parsing the XML?

Michal Ciechan
– Michal Ciechan

2015-05-27 16:06:53 +00:00
Commented May 27, 2015 at 16:06 — Michal Ciechan
– Michal Ciechan, Commented May 27, 2015 at 16:06
XDocument.Parse(theXMLString);

haughtonomous
– haughtonomous

2015-05-28 12:27:18 +00:00
Commented May 28, 2015 at 12:27 — haughtonomous
– haughtonomous, Commented May 28, 2015 at 12:27

Dan Field · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-28 12:35:39Z

3

You're missing the namespace for ErrorMessage - it's different than the root XMLNS, and needs to be specified. This code will get your element correctly:

string rawXmlString = @"<AddOrderResult xmlns:i=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"">
  <ErrorMessage xmlns=""http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/appulsive.Intertek.LIMSService"">, Fehler in der Belegerfassung Verkauf
Die Kontokorrentdaten konnten nicht gelesen werden.
(Exception of type 'Sagede.OfficeLine.Wawi.BelegEngine.RecordsetEmptyException' was thrown.)
  </ErrorMessage>
</AddOrderResult>";

XDocument xmlResponse = XDocument.Parse(rawXmlString);

var resultElement =xmlResponse.Element("AddOrderResult");
XNamespace ns = "http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/appulsive.Intertek.LIMSService";
var errorMessage = resultElement.Element(ns + "ErrorMessage");

You could also get it without the namespace, but it's a bit more clunky...

var errorMessage_NoNS = resultElement.Elements().Where(x => x.Name.LocalName == "ErrorMessage").FirstOrDefault();

edited May 28, 2015 at 12:35

answered May 27, 2015 at 16:11

Dan Field

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3 Comments

haughtonomous Over a year ago

Thanks - I'll try that approach. I wondered if the different namespace was culpable.

haughtonomous Over a year ago

The non-clunky approach, I meant. Solved the problem at a stroke. Thanks.

Dan Field Over a year ago

Glad to hear - the clunky approach was added later as an afterthought, in case you have to deal with this a lot and don't always know the namespace ahead of time.

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