Reading XML String

[jimmy]

Hi,

I have an XML string that has been returned using a WebRequest object
that i now need extract some data from. Some sample data is shown
below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ISBNdb server_time="20 05-02-25T23:03:41">
<BookList total_results=" 1" page_size="10" page_number="1"
shown_results=" 1">
<BookData book_id="somebo ok" isbn="012345678 9">
<Title>Interest ing Book</Title>
<TitleLong>Inte resting Book: Read it or else..</TitleLong>
<AuthorsText>Jo hn Doe</AuthorsText>
<PublisherText> Acme Publishing</PublisherText>
</BookData>
</BookList>
</ISBNdb>

I now need to extract the 'Title', 'AuthorsText' and 'PublisherText'
from it. Can anyone point me in the right direction because all the
samples ive seen are for reading xml files and not a string.

Thanks

James

[Martin Honnen]

jimmy wrote:

I now need to extract the 'Title', 'AuthorsText' and 'PublisherText'
from it. Can anyone point me in the right direction because all the
samples ive seen are for reading xml files and not a string.

All XML APIs (like XmlReader or XPathDocument or XmlDocument) can read
from a file or from a string, you can simply provide a StringReader over
your string with XML.

Here is an example reading out the stuff using XPathNavigator, assuming
Xml is your string variable

Dim Doc As XPathDocument = New XPathDocument(N ew StringReader(Xm l))
Dim Navigator As XPathNavigator = Doc.CreateNavig ator()
Dim NodeIterator As XPathNodeIterat or =
Navigator.Selec t("ISBNdb/BookList/BookData")
While NodeIterator.Mo veNext()
Console.WriteLi ne("Book ISBN: {0}:",
NodeIterator.Cu rrent.GetAttrib ute("isbn", ""))
Console.WriteLi ne("Title: {0}",
NodeIterator.Cu rrent.SelectSin gleNode("Title" ).Value)
Console.WriteLi ne("Author: {0}",
NodeIterator.Cu rrent.SelectSin gleNode("Author sText").Value)
Console.WriteLi ne("Publisher: {0}",
NodeIterator.Cu rrent.SelectSin gleNode("Publis herText").Value )
Console.WriteLi ne()
End While
--

Martin Honnen --- MVP XML
http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/

[Heikki Leivo]

Here is an example reading out the stuff using XPathNavigator, assuming

Xml is your string variable

Altough the result is the same, I find personally xmlDocument more
straightforward way, for example

Dim document As New System.Xml.XmlD ocument
document.LoadXm l(xml) 'assuming that xml contains your xml document

Dim path As String = "ISBNdb/BookList/BookData[@book_id=""some book""]"
Dim bookElement As System.Xml.XmlE lement =
CType(document. SelectSingleNod e(path), Xml.XmlElement)

Console.WriteLi ne("Book isbn: " & bookElement.Get Attribute("isbn ")
Console.WriteLi ne("Title: " & bookElement.Sel ectSingleNode(" Title").Value)
Console.WriteLi ne("Author: " &
bookElement.Sel ectSingleNode(" AuthorsText").V alue)
etc.