Get data from XML document into DataListView

Question

I have an XML Document that I write from vb.net to my filesystem successfully.... Now I'd like to have a button that browses for and then opens & imports the data from XML back into a datalistview...

I have the open file dialog working, and can read specific 'static' data from the file, but dynamic amounts of data seems to be a bit of trouble. Could anyone help me out please?

Here's what I have thus far:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!--Markbook data file.-->
<Root>
  <Metadata>
    <Author>first.last</Author>
    <WriteTime>19/06/2012 9:23:28 AM</WriteTime>
  </Metadata>
  <Data>
    <StudentRecord>
      <Student>student1</Student>
      <Mark>88</Mark>
      <Grade>Distinction</Grade>
    </StudentRecord>
    <StudentRecord>
      <Student>student2</Student>
      <Mark>12</Mark>
      <Grade>Participation</Grade>
    </StudentRecord>
  </Data>
</Root>

How would I go about adding each element of data in the element into a multicolumn datalistview.

Answer 1

There are number of methods/ways to read/parse the XML document in .net framework but I'd like to suggest Linq-Xml.

Have a look at this code snippet:

 Dim doc = XDocument.Load("x:\folder\file.xml")
 Dim result = From ele In doc.Root.Descendants("StudentRecord")
                Select New With
                     {
                      .Name = ele.Element("Student").Value,
                      .Mark = ele.Element("Mark").Value,
                      .Grade = ele.Element("Grade").Value
                     }
 'Bind the List to DataGridView or other bindable control
 DataGridView1.DataSource = result.ToList()