Tearing Apart an XML Document

Download source files - 8.13 KB

Introduction

You have an XML document that needs to be broken apart into its constituent parts. Each part can then be sent to a different destination (possibly a Web Service) to be processed individually. This solution is useful when you have a large document, such as a phonebook, an invoice, etc., in XML form.

In order to separate the XML items, we will load an XmlDocument with the invoice XML from the MyDoc.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<MyDoc Date='2005-10-31' Designer='Shahab Fatemi'> 
<Test>
   <Date>2005-10-31</Date> 
   <PersianDate>1384-08-09</PersianDate>
</Test>
<BookList>
   <Name>C#.NET</Name> 
   <Author>Shahab Fatemi</Author>
   <Price>49.99$</Price> 
   <Publisher>Naji</Publisher>
</BookList>
<PhoneBook>
   <No number='1'> 
    <Name>Shahab</Name>
    <Family>Fatemi</Family>
     <Country>IRAN</Country>
    <City>Esfahan</City> 
    <MobileNumber>0913-319-9328</MobileNumber>
    <E-Mail>shahab_f_m@yahoo.com</E-Mail> 
   </No>
  <No number='2'>
    <Name>Noosha</Name> 
    <Family>xx</Family>
    <Country>IRAN</Country> 
    <City>Esfahan</City>
    <MobileNumber>0913-xxx-xxxx</MobileNumber> 
    <E-Mail>noosha@x.com</E-Mail>
   </No>
  <No number='3'>    
    <Name>Navid</Name>
    <Family>Khosravi</Family> 
    <Country>IRAN</Country>
    <City>Esfahan</City> 
    <MobileNumber>0913-123-4567</MobileNumber>
    <E-Mail>navid@x.com</E-Mail> 
   </No>
  <No number='4'>
   <Name>Mehrdad</Name> 
    <Family>Saifi</Family>
    <Country>IRAN</Country> 
    <City>Esfahan</City>
    <MobileNumber>0913-123-4567</MobileNumber> 
    <E-Mail>kechele@kachal.com</E-Mail>
   </No>
</PhoneBook>
</MyDoc>

The code to tear this document apart and send the various information pieces to their respective departments is shown here:

#region XML

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument( );
 
// pick up MyDoc from deposited directory
xmlDoc.Load(@"..\..\MyDoc.xml");
 
// get the MyDoc element node
XmlNode MyDoc = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("/MyDoc");

// get the MyDoc date attribute
XmlAttribute invDate = 
  (XmlAttribute)MyDoc.Attributes.GetNamedItem("Date");
 
// get the MyDoc number attribute
XmlAttribute invNum = 
  (XmlAttribute)MyDoc.Attributes.GetNamedItem("Designer");

#endregion

#region tear apart <Test>

// Process the <Test> information to Accounting
XmlElement Test = xmlDoc.CreateElement("Test");

// correlate this information back to the original MyDoc number and date
Test.Attributes.Append((XmlAttribute)invDate.Clone( ));
Test.Attributes.Append((XmlAttribute)invNum.Clone( ));
XmlNodeList TestList = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("/MyDoc/Test");
 
// add the <Test> information to the document
foreach(XmlNode TestInfo in TestList)
{
  Test.AppendChild(TestInfo.Clone( ));
}
Console.WriteLine("Test:\r\n{0}",Test.OuterXml);
 
// Save a copy of the document
FileStream fileStream = File.Create(@"..\..\Test.xml");
byte [] bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(Test.OuterXml);
fileStream.Write(bytes,0,bytes.Length);
fileStream.Close( );

#endregion
 
#region tear apart <BookList>
 
// Process the <BookList> information to Accounting
XmlElement BookList = xmlDoc.CreateElement("BookList");
 
// correlate this information back to the original MyDoc number and date
BookList.Attributes.Append((XmlAttribute)invDate.Clone( ));
BookList.Attributes.Append((XmlAttribute)invNum.Clone( ));
XmlNodeList Booklist = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("/MyDoc/BookList");
 
// add the <BookList> information to the document
foreach(XmlNode BookListInfo in Booklist)
{
  BookList.AppendChild(BookListInfo.Clone( ));
}
Console.WriteLine("BookList:\r\n{0}",BookList.OuterXml);
 
// Save a copy of the document
fileStream = File.Create(@"..\..\BookList.xml");
bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(BookList.OuterXml);
fileStream.Write(bytes,0,bytes.Length);
fileStream.Close( );

#endregion
 
#region tear apart <PhoneBook>
 
// Process the item information to <PhoneBook>
XmlElement PhoneBook = xmlDoc.CreateElement("PhoneBook");
 
// correlate this information back to the original MyDoc number and date
PhoneBook.Attributes.Append((XmlAttribute)invDate.Clone( ));
PhoneBook.Attributes.Append((XmlAttribute)invNum.Clone( ));
XmlNodeList itemList = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("/MyDoc/PhoneBook/No");
 
// add the item information to the document
foreach(XmlNode item in itemList)
{
  PhoneBook.AppendChild(item.Clone( ));
}
Console.WriteLine("PhoneBook:\r\n{0}",PhoneBook.OuterXml);
 
// Save a copy of the document
fileStream = File.Create(@"..\..\PhoneBook.xml");
bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(PhoneBook.OuterXml);
fileStream.Write(bytes,0,bytes.Length);
fileStream.Close( );
#endregion

The "MyDoc" containing the various pieces of XML data for the Web Services is listed in the following sections:

Result

Test.XML

<Test Date="2005-10-31" Designer="Shahab Fatemi">
<Test> 
    <Date>2005-10-31</Date>
    <PersianDate>1384-08-09</PersianDate>
</Test>
</Test>

BookList.XML

<BookList Date="2005-10-31" Designer="Shahab Fatemi">
<BookList>
    <Name>C#.NET</Name> 
    <Author>Shahab Fatemi</Author>
    <Price>49.99$</Price>
    <Publisher>Naji</Publisher>
</BookList>
</BookList>

PhoneBook.XML

<PhoneBook>
   <No number='1'> 
    <Name>Shahab</Name>
    <Family>Fatemi</Family>
     <Country>IRAN</Country>
    <City>Esfahan</City> 
    <MobileNumber>0913-319-9328</MobileNumber>
    <E-Mail>shahab_f_m@yahoo.com</E-Mail> 
   </No>
  <No number='2'>
    <Name>Noosha</Name> 
    <Family>xx</Family>
    <Country>IRAN</Country> 
    <City>Esfahan</City>
    <MobileNumber>0913-xxx-xxxx</MobileNumber> 
    <E-Mail>noosha@x.com</E-Mail>
   </No>
    <No number='3'>    
    <Name>Navid</Name>
    <Family>Khosravi</Family> 
    <Country>IRAN</Country>
    <City>Esfahan</City> 
    <MobileNumber>0913-123-4567</MobileNumber>
    <E-Mail>navid@x.com</E-Mail> 
   </No>
  <No number='4'>
    <Name>Mehrdad</Name> 
    <Family>Saifi</Family>
    <Country>IRAN</Country> 
    <City>Esfahan</City>
    <MobileNumber>0913-123-4567</MobileNumber> 
    <E-Mail>kechele@kachal.com</E-Mail>
   </No>
</PhoneBook>