How to save and get values from an Xml without cast?

Question

Something which I really hate is to cast each element or attribute value from a Xml file.

This momment, I'm creating in hundreds of modules a methods where specifies how to convert an object into a XmlFile. Believe, this is very tired. So I'm thinking in an alternative.

I was investigating about XSD, I'm not sure if this will be my salvation. I'm using Linq to Xml to save and get the values. I mean, my objects are composed like this:

- Foo1 : Foo
   - Range1 : Range
      - X : int
      - Y : int
- ...

As you can see, they have many nodes. Is there another alternative to do this? I mean, strongly types.

Answer 1

You can try these XElement extension methods: http://searisen.com/xmllib/extensions.wiki

Here is an example of the power of it, given this xml from another post:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
  <PatchCreation
    Id="224C316C-5894-4771-BABF-21A3AC1F75FF"
    CleanWorkingFolder="yes"
    OutputPath="patch.pcp"
    WholeFilesOnly="yes">
    <PatchInformation
        Description="Update Patch"
        Comments="Update Patch"
        ShortNames="no"
        Languages="1033"
        Compressed="yes"
        Manufacturer="me"/>

    <PatchMetadata
        AllowRemoval="yes"
        Description="Update Patch"
        ManufacturerName="me"
        TargetProductName="Update"
        MoreInfoURL="http://andrewherrick.com/"
        Classification="Update"
        DisplayName="Update Patch"/>

    <Family DiskId="5000"
        MediaSrcProp="Sample"
        Name="Update"
        SequenceStart="5000">
      <UpgradeImage SourceFile="c:\new.msi" Id="PatchUpgrade">
        <TargetImage SourceFile="c:\old.msi" Order="2" Id="PatchUpgrade" IgnoreMissingFiles="no" />
      </UpgradeImage>
    </Family>

    <PatchSequence PatchFamily="SamplePatchFamily"
        Sequence="1.0.0.0"
        Supersede="yes" />
  </PatchCreation>
</Wix>

This sets the value of the UpgradeImage tag's SourceFile Attribute and the TargetImage tag inside the UpgradeImage and its SourceFile.

XElement wix = XElement.Load(xmlFile1.FullName);
wix.Set("PatchCreation/Family/UpgradeImage/SourceFile", "upgrade path", true)
   .Set("TargetImage/SourceFile", "target path", true);

You can also get their values in the same fashion (no casts).

string upgradeSource = wix.Get("PatchCreation/Family/UpgradeImage/SourceFile", string.Empty);
string targetSource = wix.Get("PatchCreation/Family/UpgradeImage/TargetImage/SourceFile", string.Empty);

Or this can be written as:

XElement upgradeImage = wix.GetElement("PatchCreation/Family/UpgradeImage");
string upgradeSource = upgradeImage.Get("SourceFile", string.Empty);
string targetSource = upgradeImage.Get("TargetImage/SourceFile", string.Empty);

To get a list of integers:

<root>
 <path>
  <list>
    <value>1</value>
    <value>12</value>
    <value>13</value>
    <value>14</value>
    <value>15</value>
   </list>
  </path>
</root>

Use the GetEnumerable() method:

List<int> list = root
    .GetEnumerable("path/list/value", xvalue => xvalue.Get(null, int.MinValue));
    .ToList();

To set a new list of ints:

var list2 = new int[] { 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 };
root.SetEnumerable("path/list", list2, a => new XElement("value", a));

Which results in this new xml:

<root>
  <path>
    <list>
      <value>1</value>
      <value>3</value>
      <value>4</value>
      <value>5</value>
      <value>6</value>
      <value>7</value>
      <value>8</value>
      <value>9</value>
      <value>0</value>
    </list>
  </path>
</root>