C# reading XML?

[FLX]

Hello,

I'm a beginner and i got serious issues with reading xml in C#.
This is my XML doc:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='ISO-8859-1'?><MediaInfo><File CompleteFileName='ToDo'>
 
<StreamKind ID='General'>
 
<Stream ID='0'><Tag ID='Format/String'>AVI</Tag>
 
<Tag ID='OveralBitRate/String'></Tag>
 
<Tag ID='FileSize/String'>698 MiB</Tag>
 
</Stream>
 
</StreamKind>
 
<StreamKind ID='Video'>
 
<Stream ID='0'><Tag ID='Codec/String'>XviD</Tag>
 
<Tag ID='Width'>640</Tag>
 
<Tag ID='Height'>272</Tag>
 
</Stream>
 
</StreamKind>
 
<StreamKind ID='Audio'>
 
<Stream ID='0'><Tag ID='Codec/String'>AC3</Tag>
 
<Tag ID='SamplingRate/String'>48 KHz</Tag>
 
</Stream>
 
</StreamKind>
 
</File>
 
</MediaInfo>
 

I'm trying to fetch the Width, Height and SamplingRate/String into textboxes.
I started with the width, and i came up with this:

        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
        doc.Load("C:\\example.xml");
        xmlwidth = doc.GetElementById("Width");
        newWidthBox.Text = xmlwidth;
 

I just cant get it to work, can somebody give me advice?
Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Dennis

[mwalts]

Hello,

I'm a beginner and i got serious issues with reading xml in C#.
This is my XML doc:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='ISO-8859-1'?><MediaInfo><File CompleteFileName='ToDo'>
 
<StreamKind ID='General'>
 
<Stream ID='0'><Tag ID='Format/String'>AVI</Tag>
 
<Tag ID='OveralBitRate/String'></Tag>
 
<Tag ID='FileSize/String'>698 MiB</Tag>
 
</Stream>
 
</StreamKind>
 
<StreamKind ID='Video'>
 
<Stream ID='0'><Tag ID='Codec/String'>XviD</Tag>
 
<Tag ID='Width'>640</Tag>
 
<Tag ID='Height'>272</Tag>
 
</Stream>
 
</StreamKind>
 
<StreamKind ID='Audio'>
 
<Stream ID='0'><Tag ID='Codec/String'>AC3</Tag>
 
<Tag ID='SamplingRate/String'>48 KHz</Tag>
 
</Stream>
 
</StreamKind>
 
</File>
 
</MediaInfo>
 

I'm trying to fetch the Width, Height and SamplingRate/String into textboxes.
I started with the width, and i came up with this:

        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
        doc.Load("C:\\example.xml");
        xmlwidth = doc.GetElementById("Width");
        newWidthBox.Text = xmlwidth;
 

I just cant get it to work, can somebody give me advice?
Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Dennis

Well for starters, GetElementByID returns a XmlElement not a string so try something more like this

        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
        doc.Load("C:\\example.xml");
        XmlElement xmlwidth = doc.GetElementById("Width");
        newWidthBox.Text = xmlwidth.InnerText;
 

You might also want to look into SelectNodes and SelectSingleNode (along with the XPath syntax they both follow) if you find that GetElementById isn't doing what you want

Good luck,

-mwalts

[FLX]

Dear mwalts,

First of all, thanks for your swift reply, its highly appreciated.
The code that you have posted unfortunately doesnt work. JIT debug catches errors at line 36, which is the "newWidthBox.Text = xmlwidth.InnerText;" line.
Does anyone know what is wrong with it?

Regards,

Dennis

[blackjack2150]

Dear mwalts,

First of all, thanks for your swift reply, its highly appreciated.
The code that you have posted unfortunately doesnt work. JIT debug catches errors at line 36, which is the "newWidthBox.Text = xmlwidth.InnerText;" line.
Does anyone know what is wrong with it?

Regards,

Dennis

What's the error message? Is the xmlwidth object null/empty?
If I were you I would use SelectNode or SelectSingleNode methods to fetch the values from the XML file. These, however require usage of XPath. But in your case the file is very small, so the expression won't be too complex. I would suggest you read the tutorial on w3schools.com about XPath.

All the best!

[FLX]

hello all,

the error that JIT spits out is "System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.". I also looked up xpath, but i cant find a good example of extracting a single value, can anyone help me with that?

Regards,

Dennis

[mwalts]

hello all,

the error that JIT spits out is "System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.". I also looked up xpath, but i cant find a good example of extracting a single value, can anyone help me with that?

Regards,

Dennis

Ok, so it's obvious that the GetElementById is not doing what you want.

From your example it seemed right to me, but I admit I don't often use that method. As for XPath, try looking through this (yes, the whole thing)
http://www.w3schools.com/xpath/xpath_intro.asp

Looks like your xPath expression would be something like this:
/MediaInfo/File/StreamKind/Stream/Tag[@ID='Width']

Throw that into a SelectSingleNode and it should do it.

You should still test for a null response and handle it accordingly though. And remember XML is case sensitive so if any of the nodes above are spelled incorrectly, it won't work.

If your trying to get everything from the video node though, you might want to try something more like this

              XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
              doc.Load("C:\\example.xml");
              XmlNode VidNode = doc.SelectSingleNode("/MediaInfo/File/StreamKind[@ID='Video'];
              //Do all the stuff we want now on VidNode instead, notice that an
              //XmlNode still has SelectSingleNode and SelectNodes methods
              //To find width from here it would be like
              XmlNode widthNode = VidNode.SelectSingleNode("Stream/Tag[@ID='Width']");
              //Now use the widthNode.InnerText to get the width you wanted
 

Good luck,

-mwalts

[FLX]

Ok, so it's obvious that the GetElementById is not doing what you want.

From your example it seemed right to me, but I admit I don't often use that method. As for XPath, try looking through this (yes, the whole thing)
http://www.w3schools.com/xpath/xpath_intro.asp

Looks like your xPath expression would be something like this:
/MediaInfo/File/StreamKind/Stream/Tag[@ID='Width']

Throw that into a SelectSingleNode and it should do it.

You should still test for a null response and handle it accordingly though. And remember XML is case sensitive so if any of the nodes above are spelled incorrectly, it won't work.

If your trying to get everything from the video node though, you might want to try something more like this

              XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
              doc.Load("C:\\example.xml");
              XmlNode VidNode = doc.SelectSingleNode("/MediaInfo/File/StreamKind[@ID='Video'];
              //Do all the stuff we want now on VidNode instead, notice that an
              //XmlNode still has SelectSingleNode and SelectNodes methods
              //To find width from here it would be like
              XmlNode widthNode = VidNode.SelectSingleNode("Stream/Tag[@ID='Width']");
              //Now use the widthNode.InnerText to get the width you wanted
 

Good luck,

-mwalts

Awesome man, you made my day! there was a slight error in VidNode tho, it needed to be:

XmlNode VidNode = doc.SelectSingleNode("/MediaInfo/File/StreamKind[@ID='Video']");

Thanks so much :D

Regards,

Dennis

[mwalts]

Awesome man, you made my day! there was a slight error in VidNode tho, it needed to be:

XmlNode VidNode = doc.SelectSingleNode("/MediaInfo/File/StreamKind[@ID='Video']");

Thanks so much :D

Regards,

Dennis

Yeah, it did it directly in this silly little post window, so no surprise it wasn't perfect :p

Glad it helped,

-mwalts

[FLX]

Hello again,

I have the feeling that there still is something wrong with the code.
JIT gives the following error:

************** Exception Text **************
System.Xml.XmlException: Data at the root level is invalid. Line 1, position 1.
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res, String arg)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseRootLevelWhitespace()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml)
   at ZunEnc.Form1.encodeButton_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Users\FLX\Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\ZunEnc\ZunEnc\Form1.cs:line 42
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
 

I use the following code:

            //start grabbing XML values from mediainfo
            XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
            //grabs xml from string
            doc.LoadXml(outputMediaInfo);
            //defining nodes to grab
            XmlNode VidNode = doc.SelectSingleNode("/MediaInfo/File/StreamKind[@ID='Video']");
            XmlNode AudioNode = doc.SelectSingleNode("/MediaInfo/File/StreamKind[@ID='Audio']");
            //grabbing the values
            XmlNode samplingNode = AudioNode.SelectSingleNode("Stream/Tag[@ID='SamplingRate/String']");
            XmlNode audioCodecNode = AudioNode.SelectSingleNode("Stream/Tag[@ID='Codec/String']");
            XmlNode widthNode = VidNode.SelectSingleNode("Stream/Tag[@ID='Width']");
            XmlNode heightNode = VidNode.SelectSingleNode("Stream/Tag[@ID='Height']");
            //putting the values in their designated boxes
            widthBox.Text = widthNode.InnerText;
            heightBox.Text = heightNode.InnerText;
            audioCodecBox.Text = audioCodecNode.InnerText;
            audioSamplingBox.Text = samplingNode.InnerText;
            //end grabbing xml from mediainfo
 

I did a lot of research on the web, but i cant find out whats causing this.
Can someone help me?

Thanks so much!

Regards,

Dennis

[blackjack2150]

I usually do something like this:

XmlNode nd = doc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode(..);

,where doc is the XmlDocument. The DocumentElement property returns the root element, so you don't bother with it anymore in your XPath expression.

[mwalts]

Hello again,

I have the feeling that there still is something wrong with the code.
JIT gives the following error:

************** Exception Text **************
System.Xml.XmlException: Data at the root level is invalid. Line 1, position 1.
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res, String arg)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseRootLevelWhitespace()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml)
   at ZunEnc.Form1.encodeButton_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Users\FLX\Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\ZunEnc\ZunEnc\Form1.cs:line 42
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
 

I use the following code:

            //start grabbing XML values from mediainfo
            XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
            //grabs xml from string
            doc.LoadXml(outputMediaInfo);
            //defining nodes to grab
            XmlNode VidNode = doc.SelectSingleNode("/MediaInfo/File/StreamKind[@ID='Video']");
            XmlNode AudioNode = doc.SelectSingleNode("/MediaInfo/File/StreamKind[@ID='Audio']");
            //grabbing the values
            XmlNode samplingNode = AudioNode.SelectSingleNode("Stream/Tag[@ID='SamplingRate/String']");
            XmlNode audioCodecNode = AudioNode.SelectSingleNode("Stream/Tag[@ID='Codec/String']");
            XmlNode widthNode = VidNode.SelectSingleNode("Stream/Tag[@ID='Width']");
            XmlNode heightNode = VidNode.SelectSingleNode("Stream/Tag[@ID='Height']");
            //putting the values in their designated boxes
            widthBox.Text = widthNode.InnerText;
            heightBox.Text = heightNode.InnerText;
            audioCodecBox.Text = audioCodecNode.InnerText;
            audioSamplingBox.Text = samplingNode.InnerText;
            //end grabbing xml from mediainfo
 

I did a lot of research on the web, but i cant find out whats causing this.
Can someone help me?

Thanks so much!

Regards,

Dennis

So, it's doing this on the doc.Load? it looks like your XML is probably "Not well formed"

You can look at the w3c school site to figure out exactly what is wrong, but in general it could be that a tag doesn't have a matching terminator (and remember, it is case sensitive) or an invalid character is included somewhere (there are a lot of them). If it's the character issue, you'll want to look into CData sections.

If you post the XML file contents here, someone might be able to help you. If it's too big, save a copy, cut it back, try it out, and if the same problem occurs, post that snippet

Have fun,

-mwalts

[FLX]

I think its because the xml file is formed by an external application, and it doesnt have a wait on it, so it already starts grabbing while its still compiling.