VB.NET - How to read a XML file using VB Net - Asked By Lennie Kuah on 04-Sep-05 06:47 AM

Hi All, 
I am a newbie to Vb.Net. I am trying to read from XML file and load the element text (first name & " " & last name) into a listbox but have no joy. Could someone please help me out. Thanks. 
Cheers, 
Lennie 
..................................................................................................................................... 
Framents of Books.xml 
<?xml version='1.0'?> 
<!-- This file represents a fragment of a book store inventory database --> 
<bookstore> 
  <book genre="autobiography" publicationdate="1981" ISBN="1-861003-11-0"> 
    <title>The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin</title> 
    <author> 
      <first-name>Benjamin</first-name> 
      <last-name>Franklin</last-name> 
    </author> 
    <price>8.99</price> 
  </book> 
  <book genre="novel" publicationdate="1967" ISBN="0-201-63361-2"> 
    <title>The Confidence Man</title> 
    <author> 
      <first-name>Herman</first-name> 
      <last-name>Melville</last-name> 
    </author> 
    <price>11.99</price> 
  </book> 
  <book genre="philosophy" publicationdate="1991" ISBN="1-861001-57-6"> 
    <title>The Gorgias</title> 
    <author> 
      <name>Plato</name> 
    </author> 
    <price>9.99</price> 
  </book> 
</bookstore 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
My scripts 
Imports system.IO 
Imports system.xml 
Imports ReadXML 
 Dim strDir As String = "C:\EDITemp\Books.xml" 
 Dim xReader as XmlTextReader = new XmlTextReader(strDir) 
 Do while xReader.Read() 
                  Select Case reader.NodeType 
                        Case XmlNodeType.Element ' node is an element 
                              If reader.AttributeCount > 0 Then 
                                    While reader.MoveToNextAttribute() 
                                          If XmlNodeType.Text Then 
                                                 Listbox1.items.add ( reader.Value) 
                                          End If 
                                    End While 
                              End If 
                  End Select 
 Loop

and getting a NodeList from an Xpath expression. You can thn perform your logic on the child nodes of the nodes in the NodeList
Dim doc As XmlDocument = New XmlDocument
doc.Load("C:\EDITemp\Books.xml")
Dim nodes As XmlNodeList = doc.SelectNodes("//author")
For Each node As XmlNode In nodes
' Process the child nodes, first-name, last-name and name
Next

hi,
  Here is the code:
// Reading an xml file
Sub ReadXML(FileName as String)
Try
lblXMLFile.Text =""
Dim objxml as new  XMLTextReader(FileName)
dim sCategory as String
dim bNested as Boolean
dim sLastElement as String
Dim sValue as String
'Read method loops through the XML stream
Do While objxml.Read
'Output elements and values
'Look at output in browser and compare to menu.xml file to 
'see exactly what is being done
		If objxml.NodeType = XMLNodeType.Element Then
			 if bNested = True  then
			    if sCategory <> "" then sCategory = sCategory & " > "  
			    sCategory = sCategory &  sLastElement
			 End if 
			  bNested = True
			 sLastElement = objxml.Name
		Else If obhxml.NodeType = XMLNodeType.Text or _
		  objxml.NodeType = XMLNodeType.CData Then
			bNested = False
			sCategory = "<P>" & sCategory
			sValue = objxml.value 
			 lblXMLFile.Text  = lblXMLFile.Text & "<B>" & sCategory & _
			    "<BR>" &  sLastElement & "</B><BR>" &  sValue 
			 sLastElement = ""
		     sCategory = ""
		End if
Loop
	objxml.close
Catch Ex as Exception
	lblXMLFile.Text = "The following error occurred: " & Ex.Message
End Try
End Sub
Regards,
Suneetha

or XPathNavigator to do this. Your XML is small and these kind of searches are quicker in DOM. Load your XML into an XMLDocument and select the author node and then parse the child nodes as in Jon's example

Hi Suneetha,
Thank you for taking time to help me out. Appreciate your help very much.
Cheers,
Lennie

Hi Aarthi,
Thanks for all you advice and help. You are awesome to help me out.
Cheers,
Lennie