Loading an XML file in your Silverlight project into memory
Version : Silverlight 2 Beta 2
Reading an XML file in an XAP package can easily be done with the help of a helper class like so:
1: public static class XmlHelper
2: { 3: public static XElement LoadDocument(string fileName)
4: { 5: //No longer required in Silverlight 2 since
6: //XmlXapResolver has been added as the default resolver for XmlReader
7: //ref: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc189007(vs.95).aspx
8: //XmlReaderSettings settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
9: //settings.XmlResolver = new XmlXapResolver();
10: //XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(fileName, settings);
11:
12: XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(fileName);
13: XElement element = XElement.Load(reader);
14: return element;
15: }
16: }
Once you have the XElement object, you are free to manipulate it with LINQ to XML as shown below:
1: public static List<Slide> LoadSlides()
2: { 3: XElement element = XmlHelper.LoadDocument("Slides.xml"); 4: var slides = from slide in element.Descendants("Slide") 5: select new Slide { 6: Title = (string)slide.Element("Title"), 7: Text = (string)slide.Element("Text"), 8: Image = (string)slide.Element("Image"), 9: };
10: return slides.ToList();
11: }
The method above returns a List<Slide> where the Slide class is defined like so:
1: public class Slide
2: { 3: public string Title { get; set; } 4: public string Text { get; set; } 5: public string Image { get; set; } 6: }
and the contents of the XML file we are reading is:
1: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2: <Slides>
3: <Slide>
4: <Title>Slide 1</Title>
5: <Text>Slide 1 Description</Text>
6: <Image>Slide1.jpg</Image>
7: </Slide>
8: <Slide>
9: <Title>Slide 2</Title>
10: <Text>Slide 2 Description</Text>
11: <Image>Slide2.jpg</Image>
12: </Slide>
13: </Slides>
Note that the XML file should have its BuildAction set to "Content".