Edit a xml file using c# asp.net - asp.net

Question

Here is my xml file :
I want to edit this using c# and my code is like that
XmlDocument xml = new XmlDocument();
xml.Load(Server.MapPath("xyz.XML"));
foreach (XmlElement element in xml.SelectNodes("//table"))
{
foreach (XmlElement element1 in element)
{
if (element.SelectSingleNode("//cell").InnerText == "Amit Pate")
{
XmlNode newname = xml.CreateElement("Name");
newname.InnerText = Name.Text;
element.ReplaceChild(newname, element1);
//xml.Save(Server.MapPath("xyz.XML"));
}
if (element.SelectSingleNode("//cell").InnerText == "SSE")
{
XmlNode newdsg = xml.CreateElement("Designation");
newdsg.InnerText = Designation.Text;
element.ReplaceChild(newdsg, element1);
//xml.Save(Server.MapPath("xyz.XML"));
}
if (element.SelectSingleNode("//cell").InnerText == "asp.net")
{
XmlNode newskill = xml.CreateElement("Skill");
newskill.InnerText = Skill.Text;
element.ReplaceChild(newskill, element1);
//xml.Save(Server.MapPath("xyz.XML"));
}
xml.Save(Server.MapPath("xyz.XML"));
}
}
It's not working properly. It always updated only the first node of the xml file. Please tell me what I'm missing or any other better way to edit the xml file.
Thank you

Answer 1

While I know nothing of C# or ASP.Net, but do know XML, you may have to modify your inner for loop and if logic to explicitly search each <cell> under each <row>:
foreach (XmlElement rows in xml.SelectNodes("//table"))
{
foreach (XmlElement row in rows.SelectNodes("//row"))
{
if (row.SelectSingleNode("cell").InnerText ...
Right now, it seems you are searching all <cell> nodes under <table> since you use the double forward XPath expression on the outer loop's element variable and then select only one of them (always the first) with SelectSingleNode() (same method used in VB and VBA which I know a bit).
With that said, consider using XSLT, a special-purpose, declarative language and sibling to XPath, designed specifically to edit a XML file. In doing so, you avoid any looping and conditional logic. Practically all general purpose languages carry an XSLT 1.0 processor including C#, ASP, VB, Java, PHP, Python, Perl, etc. and these same languages can call external command lines to dedicated XSLT processors like Saxon or Xalan, even XSLT 2.0 and 3.0 processors.
Below is an example to replicate your objective in what appears to be renaming <cell> nodes:
XML Input
<document>
<page>
<table rows="3" cols="1">
<row>
<cell>Amit Pate</cell>
</row>
<row>
<cell>SSE</cell>
</row>
<row>
<cell>asp.net</cell>
</row>
</table>
</page>
</document>
XSLT Script (save as .xsl --special well-formed .xml file-- and read in like any other .xml)
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output indent="yes"/>
<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
<xsl:template match="/document|page">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="*"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="table">
<xsl:copy>
<row><Name><xsl:value-of select="row[1]"/></Name></row>
<row><Designation><xsl:value-of select="row[2]"/></Designation></row>
<row><Skill><xsl:value-of select="row[3]"/></Skill></row>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
XML Output
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<document>
<page>
<table>
<row>
<Name>Amit Pate</Name>
</row>
<row>
<Designation>SSE</Designation>
</row>
<row>
<Skill>asp.net</Skill>
</row>
</table>
</page>
</document>
References
C#/VB - XSLT Transformations with the XslTransform Class
Using XSLT within ASP