Xml is giving me an issue in my windows forms application.

Question

1.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

I have created an xml file called linksXML with the code

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<favorites>
	        <link url="http://www.google.com/" >Google/</link>
			<link url="http://www.codeproject.com/">CodeProject</link>
			<link url="http://www.youtube.com/edu">Youtube/Edu</link>
</favorites>

And I have this on my windows forms application

C#

private void addLink(String url, string name)
        {
            //open the xml file 
            XmlDocument myXml = new XmlDocument();
            //and a new element to the xml file
            XmlElement el = myXml.CreateElement("link");
            el.SetAttribute(b1.Text, url);
            el.InnerText = b2.Text;

            if (!File.Exists(linksXML))
            {
                XmlElement root = myXml.CreateElement("links");
                myXml.AppendChild(root);
                root.AppendChild(el);
            }
            else
            {
                myXml.Load(linksXML);
                myXml.DocumentElement.AppendChild(el);
            }
            //if the links bar is visible then 
            //you have to add a ToolStripButton
            if (linkBar.Visible == true)
            {
                //create a new ToolStripButton object with the favicon image,
                //website name the click eventhandler to 
                //navigate to the specific web site               
                ToolStripButton b =
                          new ToolStripButton(el.InnerText, getFavicon(url),
                          items_Click, el.GetAttribute("url"));
                b.ToolTipText = el.GetAttribute("url");
                //the MouseUp event is used 
                //for showing the context menu of this button 
                b.MouseUp += new MouseEventHandler(b_MouseUp);
                linkBar.Items.Add(b);
            }

            myXml.Save(linksXml);
        }

What I have tried:

This line gives me an error. Most of the places where I wrote linksXML shows a red line. I do not understand why.

if (!File.Exists(linksXML))

Posted 7-Oct-21 1:34am

candijen

Updated 7-Oct-21 4:52am

PIEBALDconsult

v3

Add a Solution

Comments

CHill60 7-Oct-21 7:39am

What is the error?!

candijen 7-Oct-21 7:57am

In reply to your solution below I added the Xmlfile to my solution explorer in visual studio, does it still need the path? and I did not understand what you meant by "class level variable called linksXML to which you have assigned a value in code that you have not shared"

CHill60 7-Oct-21 8:17am

I've updated my solution

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

CHill60 · Answer 1 · 2021-10-07T01:42:00

If your file is called linksXML then it will also need a path and an extension so that line should read something like

C#

if (!File.Exists("c:\myfolder\linksXML,xml"))

The only way the code you have could work is if you have a class level variable called linksXML to which you have assigned a value in code that you have not shared

Edit after OP Comment:
By adding the XML file to your solution you are able to edit the file within Visual Studio. That does not mean you can reference it with just that part of it's name.

Look at the documentation for File.Exists(String) Method (System.IO) | Microsoft Docs[^]. It is expecting a string. The fact that Visual Studio is showing a red line under linksXML means that it does not know what linksXML is.

Either pass a string directly to the File.Exists function OR somewhere you need to declare linksXML as a variable and assign it a value e.g.

C#

string linksXML = "c:\myfolder\linksXML";

There is no declaration for linksXML in the code you have shared, so if you have declared a variable it was outside of the method addLink. For such a variable to be in scope it would have to have been declared within the class that contains addLink. See https://www.pluralsight.com/guides/understanding-scope-and-visibility-in-c[^] for more detail.

If you are including the XML file in your solution then yes, you still need the path and you will need to take care over which path is used depending on debug or release build - see How to get the current project path[^] for more details.