Fill dropdown list from xml with linq - asp.net

Question

i have the following xml doc:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<dropdowns>
<dropdown name="DropDownLoc">
<menu text="Select" value="-1" />
<menu text="North" value="1200" />
<menu text="South" value="1400" />
</dropdown>
<dropdown nome="DropDownEsp">
<menu text="Select" value="-1" />
<menu text="Est" value="7" />
<menu text="Ovest" value="9" />
</dropdown>
</dropdowns>
I want to read this xml and fill two dropdowns with a method given the dropdownlist name (like "DropDownEsp")
I want to accomplish this with linq, who can help me please ?

Answer 1

Below is code which would help you read XML and create a list of items (ListItem):
// or use XDocument.Parse("xml string") to parse string
XDocument xdoc = XDocument.Load(#"c:\testxml.xml");
var dropLists = xdoc.Descendants("dropdown")
.Select(d => d.Descendants("menu").Select(m =>
new /* new ListItem(text, value) */
{
Text = m.Attribute("text"),
Value = m.Attribute("value")
}))
.ToList();
Try adding items into controls yourself.

Answer 2

If you have an empty <asp:DropDownList ID="DynamicDropDown" runat="server" /> control on your .aspx page, you can data bind it a the results of a LINQ query like this:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if(!Page.IsPostBack)
{
// Assuming your XML file is in the App_Data folder in the root of your website
string path = Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/DropDowns.xml");
// Let's say we want to use the options from the second <dropdown>-tag in your XML
string whichDropDown = "DropDownEsp";
// This is the LINQ query to find those options from the XML
// and turn them into ListItem objects
var query =
from dropDown in XDocument.Load(path).Descendants("dropdown")
where dropDown.Attribute("name").Value == whichDropDown
from name in dropDown.Descendants("name")
let text = name.Attribute("text").value
let value = name.Attribute("value").value
select new ListItem(text, value);
// Now we data bind the query result to the control
DynamicDropDown.DataSource = query;
DynamicDropDown.DataBind();
}
}
In the LINQ query we first select only the <dropdown> element with the right name (based on the whichDropDown variable). Then we select all the <name> elements, and from each one we put the attributes in the text and value values. Then we use these values to create a new ListItem (one is created for each <name> element).
This result can then be used to data bind the <asp:DropDownList> control.