Reading from XML file where tags have an id

[mike55]

Hi all

I have the following xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<root>
  <data id="Home1">
    <text>
      <![CDATA[
      Using your web browser or mobile phone, Clubtext allows you tosend SMS <br>
      text messages to your customers, teams, staff, or club members in an easy<br>
      to use cost effective manner. 
      
      <p>Clubtext includes an administrative set of features to allow you to <br>
      manage customer/membership details and history.]]></text>
  </data>

  <data id="Home2">
    <text>
      <![CDATA[
        This is the data that belongs to home 2.  Hello world, how are you today?      
      ]]>
    </text>
  </data>
</root>

In the long term there will be a lot more information and tags in this file. What I want to do is to be able to read the data from the text tag where the id of the data tag is equal to a value that I have specified.

Here is the code that I am using to access the xml file and read from it:

Private Sub GenerateXMLMessageBody()
        Dim m_xmlr As XmlTextReader
        m_xmlr = New XmlTextReader("C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SuretxtWebSolution\Suretxt\InformationContent.xml")
        m_xmlr.WhitespaceHandling = WhitespaceHandling.None
        m_xmlr.Read()
        m_xmlr.Read()
        Load the Loop
        While Not m_xmlr.EOF
            Go to the name tag
            m_xmlr.Read()
            if not start element exit while loop
            If Not m_xmlr.IsStartElement() Then
                Exit While
            End If
            Get the Gender Attribute Value
            Dim genderAttribute = m_xmlr.GetAttribute("id")
            Read elements firstname and lastname
            m_xmlr.Read()
            main.InnerHtml = m_xmlr.ReadElementString("text").ToString
        End While
        close the reader
        m_xmlr.Close()
    End Sub

So my question is, how can I adjust the above vb.net code so that I could in one instance specify that I want to access the text where the id of the data tag is "Home2"

 

[mike55]

Found a solution, changed the code for reading the xml to

Dim dsDataset As New DataSet
        dsDataset.ReadXml("C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SuretxtWebSolution\Suretxt\InformationContent.xml")

        Dim row As Array = dsDataset.Tables(0).Select("Page=Home3")
        main.InnerHtml = row(0).itemArray(1).ToString
[code]

and added a tag <page> to identify between collections of tags.  So far the solution appears to work.

Mike55.

 

[Nerseus]

Since you dont mind reading the Xml all at once, try this (my VB syntax may not be right):

Dim xml = As New XmlDocument()
xml.Load("C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SuretxtWebSolution\Suretxt\Infor mationContent.xml")

Dim nodeToFind As String = "Home2"
Dim text As String = String.Empty
Dim node As XmlNode = xml.SelectSingleNode("//" + nodeToFind)
If (node Is Nothing) Then
    MessageBox.Show("Couldnt find node")
Else
    Dim textNode As XmlNode = node.SelectSingleNode("text")
    If (textNode Is Nothing) Then
        MessageBox("Node didnt contain a ""text"" node")
    Else
        text = textNode.InnerText
    End If
End If

Or, if you KNOW that the node and text nodes exist:

Dim xml = As New XmlDocument()
xml.Load("C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\SuretxtWebSolution\Suretxt\Infor mationContent.xml")

Dim nodeToFind As String = "Home2"
Dim text As String = xml.SelectSingleNode("//" + nodeToFind).SelectSingleNode("text").InnerText

-ner

 

[alreadyused]

retrieve xml node based on attribute value

Mike, based on your original post, you are trying to select a parent node "data" with an attribute "id" that has a value "Home2", then select its child node "text" and get its innertext.

It looks like in an earlier post that you might have changed your xdoc? Anyway, if I understand your original needs correctly, you can do this:

dim xd as new xmldocument
dim path as string = "blahblahblah"
xd.load(path)

dim xn as xmlnode = xd.selectsinglenode("/root/data[@id=Home2]/text")
dim inText as string = xn.InnerText

The point is that since you know the node/tags name ("data"), the attributes name ("id") and the attributes value ("Home2") that is the parent to the text node you are seeking, your xPath string is:
"data[@id=Home2]"

Keep in mind that it is case sensitive; if you put "home2" your xn=nothing

heres a good link for some simple xPath commands:
http://www.w3schools.com/xpath/xpath_syntax.asp

Hope that helps (and isnt too late)! :-D