CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#xmlwinforms
Drago Flirt
Drago Flirt

Reputation: 17

C# loading a XML file

How can I create a Windows Form with properties provided by an XML document?

Here is such an XML document:

<Form>
   <Size>
     <Width>558</Width> 
     <Height>537</Height> 
   </Size>
   <Text>XML saving</Text> 
   <Name>Form1</Name> 
   <Button>
     <Name>button1</Name> 
     <Text>XML button</Text> 
     <Size>
       <Width>130</Width> 
       <Width>45</Width> 
     </Size>
     <Location>
       <X>14</X> 
       <Y>24</Y> 
     </Location>
   </Button>
 </Form>

Upon loading the form, I need to show the form and the button on it with the values from the XML document.

Can anyone provide any assistance or tutorials on this subject?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1134

Answers (1)

Sergey Berezovskiy
Sergey Berezovskiy

Reputation: 236308

There is build-in functionality you can use to save and restore form settings. Use application settings binding.

You can bind such properties as Size, Location, Text, etc of form and it's controls to settings, which will be automatically loaded and applied to controls. Steps:

  • Select some control and go to Properties tab
  • Find (ApplicationSettings) property under Data category
  • Open property binding editor
  • Select property you want to save and load from xml and create new setting for that property

If you really need to use your xml, then you should parse it manually. You can create some (extension) methods like (sample with Linq to Xml):

public static void ApplySettings(this Button button, XDocument xdoc)
{
    var settings = xdoc
                 .Descendatns("Button")
                 .SingleOrDefault(b => (string)b.Element("Name") == button.Name);

    if (settings == null)
       return;

    button.Text = (string)settings.Element("Text");
    var location = settings.Element("Location");
    if (location != null)
    {
        button.X = (int)location.Element("X");
        button.Y = (int)location.Element("Y");
    }

    //etc
}

And call those method for each control:

var xdoc = XDocument.Load(settings_file);
button1.ApplySettings(xdoc);
// etc

Upvotes: 4

Related Questions