xml response http post - convert request.inputstream to string - asp.net - asp.net

Question

I'm receiving an xml response and I now want to parse this.
Currently what I have to receive the XML response is:
Dim textReader = New IO.StreamReader(Request.InputStream)
Request.InputStream.Seek(0, IO.SeekOrigin.Begin)
textReader.DiscardBufferedData()
Dim Xmlin = XDocument.Load(textReader)
How can I go ahead now a process this and pick out the element values?
<subscription>
<reference>abc123</reference>
<status>active</status>
<customer>
<fname>Joe</fname>
<lname>bloggs</lname>
<company>Bloggs inc</company>
<phone>1234567890</phone>
<email>joebloggs#hotmail.com</email>
</customer>
</subscription>
If I have it in string format I can do this using
Dim xmlE As XElement = XElement.Parse(strXML) ' strXML is string version of XML
Dim strRef As String = xmlE.Element("reference")
Do I need to convert the request.inputstream to a strign format or is there another better way?
Thanks

Answer 1

Do I need to convert the request.inputstream to a strign format or is there another better way?
You could directly load it from the request stream, you don't need to convert it to a string:
Request.InputStream.Position = 0
Dim Xmlin = XDocument.Load(Request.InputStream)
Dim reference = Xmlin.Element("subscription").Element("reference").Value
or:
Dim reference = Xmlin.Descendants("reference").First().Value

Answer 2

In the end after much testing I could only get this to work:
Dim textReader = New IO.StreamReader(Request.InputStream)
Request.InputStream.Seek(0, IO.SeekOrigin.Begin)
textReader.DiscardBufferedData()
Dim Xmlin = XDocument.Load(textReader)
Dim strXml As String = Xmlin.ToString
Dim xmlE As XElement = XElement.Parse(strXml)
Dim strRef As String = xmlE.Element("reference")
Dim strStatus As String = xmlE.Element("status")
Dim strFname As String = xmlE.Element("customer").Element("fname").Value()
Dim strLname As String = xmlE.Element("customer").Element("lname").Value()
Dim strCompany As String = xmlE.Element("customer").Element("company").Value()
Dim strPhone As String = xmlE.Element("customer").Element("phone").Value()
Dim strEmail As String = xmlE.Element("customer").Element("email").Value()