[c#] XML Reader / Writer

[jayfella]

Here's a handly little class that i use very often to read/write XML files. Its a very handy little tool to save settings or anything else you wish to read/write often.

Hope you find it useful

Useage:

setting mySettings = new settings("myFile.xml");

//  To Retrieve Values
string myString = mySettings.getSettings("myNodeName");

// To Set Values
mySetting.setSettings("myNodeName", "myValue");

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.IO;

namespace Jayfella.XMLParser
{
    class Settings
    {
        private string xmlFile;
        private XmlDocument xmldoc = new XmlDocument();
        
        public Settings(string xmlFile)
        {
            this.xmlFile = xmlFile;
            initXml();
        }

        private bool initXml()
        {
            try
            {
                xmldoc.Load(xmlFile);
            }
            catch (Exception)
            {
                TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(xmlFile);
                writer.WriteLine("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"iso-8859-1\"?>");
                writer.WriteLine("<Settings>");
                writer.WriteLine("</Settings>");
                writer.Close();
            }
            return true;
        }

        public string getSetting(string settingNode)
        {
            xmldoc.Load(xmlFile);
            XmlNodeList list = xmldoc.GetElementsByTagName("Settings");
            try
            {
                foreach (XmlNode searchNode in list)
                {
                    return searchNode.SelectSingleNode(settingNode.Replace(" ", "_")).InnerText;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception)
            { }
            return "";
        }
        
        public bool setSetting(string settingNode, string newValue)
        {
            xmldoc.Load(xmlFile);
            XmlNodeList list = xmldoc.SelectNodes("Settings");
            try
            {
                foreach (XmlNode searchNode in list)
                {
                    XmlNode node = searchNode.SelectSingleNode(settingNode.Replace(" ", "_"));
                    if (node == null)
                    {
                        XmlElement element = xmldoc.CreateElement(settingNode.Replace(" ", "_"));
                        xmldoc.DocumentElement.AppendChild(element);
                        searchNode.SelectSingleNode(settingNode.Replace(" ", "_")).InnerText = newValue;
                    }
                    else
                        searchNode.SelectSingleNode(settingNode.Replace(" ", "_")).InnerText = newValue;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception)
            { return false; }
            xmldoc.Save(xmlFile);
            return true;
        }
    }
}

jayfella Reviewed by jayfella on 16th Jun 2010. [c#] XML Reader / Writer Here's a handly little class that i use very often to read/write XML files. Its a very handy little tool to save settings or anything else you wish to read/write often. Hope you find it useful Useage: setting mySettings = new settings("myFile.xml"); // To Retrieve Values Rating: 5

[litewarez]

im still noob at this, put can you directly use the XML Namespace to allocate the settings class ?

eg:

namespace System.Xml
{
    class jaysParser
    {
       /*....*/
    }
} 

[jayfella]

yep.

you can either do:

using Jayfella.XMLParser;

in the top with the rest, or just

Jayfellla.XMLParser.Settings mySettings = new Settings("myFile.xml")

Either way works.

[litewarez]

yea its ok i thought to myself as i like ordered code that you should extend the xmlParser to the XML Namespace but wasn't sure if your allowed to implement user namepaces into a system namespace :/

[Hyperz]

Nice example. I personally would remove all try-catch blocks though .
Also, who can spot what's wrong with:

        public string getSetting(string settingNode)
        {
            xmldoc.Load(xmlFile);
            XmlNodeList list = xmldoc.GetElementsByTagName("Settings");
            try
            {
                foreach (XmlNode searchNode in list)
                {
                    return searchNode.SelectSingleNode(settingNode.Replace(" ", "_")).InnerText;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception)
            { }
            return "";
        } 

.

Edit:
Xdocument + Linq queries > XmlDocument.

[litewarez]

the parametres are incorrect ?


searchNode should be settingNode
XmlNode should be XmlNodeList

[Hyperz]

Nope lite . It's a design mistake I'm looking for.

[litewarez]

wut !

/8char

Edit:

foreach (XmlNode searchNode in list)

list is a special operator and not a variable! in defines what variable it is traversing so it should be

foreach (searchNode in XmlNode)


or you should not be using list in the above variable setter
//maybeee

[jayfella]

I try/catched it for a reason, i forget why now.. lemme think.

oh oh - user account control - its not enough to try/catch it normally, it fails inside the class if the program is denied write permissions.

EDIT: Yeah i know, no catch routine. so shoot me

[Hyperz]

I know jay, but you don't need to try-catch there, you need to if-else.

Anyways:

                foreach (XmlNode searchNode in list)
                {
                    return searchNode.SelectSingleNode(settingNode.Replace(" ", "_")).InnerText;
                } 

Why start a loop when you have a return statement in the 1st iteration ?