How can i extract XML and use it as a datasource? - asp.net

Question

I am using asp.net VB and I have an XML file containing a set of data, I would like to use it in something like a datalist and where usually you would use a database i would like to use the XML file to produce the information.
Does anyone know how to do this, i have read about transform files but surely i will format the information in the control?
The file has multiple records so in some cases i would need to perform queries on the information through the datasource.

Answer 1

I would maybe look into XML serialization and de-serialization. Using de-serialization you could read your XML into a List(T) object containing a list of your own class objects and use that as a data source for your application.
Heres a link that you may find useful:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms731073.aspx
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Dim ds As New DataSet()
ds.ReadXml(MapPath("data.xml"))

Answer 3

First you have to parse the XML and store that into custom C# object or you can directly pass the XML to your stored procedure and do the codding there for saving it into DB.
Passing the xml to stored procedure and manipulating it there is bit difficult so what I suggest is to parse it in C# and then get a custom object. Once you get it you can do whatever you want to.
Below is the sample code that parse a XML file and generate a custom C# object from it.
public CatSubCatList GenerateCategoryListFromProductFeedXML()
{
string path = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(_xmlFilePath);
XDocument xDoc = XDocument.Load(path);
XElement xElement = XElement.Parse(xDoc.ToString());
List<Category> lstCategory = xElement.Elements("Product").Select(d => new Category
{
Code = Convert.ToString(d.Element("CategoryCode").Value),
CategoryPath = d.Element("CategoryPath").Value,
Name = GetCateOrSubCategory(d.Element("CategoryPath").Value, 0), // Category
SubCategoryName = GetCateOrSubCategory(d.Element("CategoryPath").Value, 1) // Sub Category
}).GroupBy(x => new { x.Code, x.SubCategoryName }).Select(x => x.First()).ToList();
CatSubCatList catSubCatList = GetFinalCategoryListFromXML(lstCategory);
return catSubCatList;
}