Converting / Acessing the Data of an XML - String in monotouch (Xamarin) / C#

Question

My Problem: I am developing an IOS App at the Moment, with Xamarin.IOS. I mostly worked with JSON Webservices so far, but now i have to use a weather - API that is returning an XML string. I can't figure out how to parse it, so i can access its data in my code.

Solving attempts: I already went through heaps of c# tutorials, for parsing it to an array, a dictionary, a custom object etc etc, but i have the problem that most of them require librarys that i can't access within mono touch.

But there has to be an equivalent.

I tried to convert it to a JSON, so i can use it as usual, thing here is, for example the method

JsonConvert.SerializeXmlNode(...);

Is not available in Monotouch. The assembly reference is there, just some specific methods are missing.

Can anybody suggest a solution or just point me into a direction? Any light you can shed on this is really appreciated. Thanks.

Code P.S: This is what i get when requesting the web service.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<weather>
<data>
    <location>

        <pcode>21335</pcode>
    </location>

    <day date="07.11.2014">
        <tmax>10</tmax>
        <tmin>2</tmin>
        <wrcode>13</wrcode>
        <symbol>regenschauer</symbol>
        <rr>20</rr>
        <windforce_bft>4</windforce_bft>
        <windforce_kmh>22</windforce_kmh>
        <winddir>SO</winddir>
        <sunrise>07:28</sunrise>
        <sunset>16:36</sunset>
        <sunshine>6</sunshine>

        <details>
            <temp_m>6</temp_m>
            <symbol_m>heiter</symbol_m>
            <wrcode_m>4</wrcode_m>
            <windforce_bft_m>4</windforce_bft_m>
            <windforce_kmh_m>20</windforce_kmh_m>
            <winddir_m>S</winddir_m>
            <rr_m>5</rr_m>
            <temp_a>10</temp_a>
            <symbol_a>wolkig</symbol_a>
            <wrcode_a>5</wrcode_a>
            <windforce_bft_a>4</windforce_bft_a>
            <windforce_kmh_a>22</windforce_kmh_a>
            <winddir_a>SO</winddir_a>
            <rr_a>20</rr_a>
            <temp_e>9</temp_e>
            <wrcode_e>13</wrcode_e>
            <symbol_e>regenschauer</symbol_e>
            <windforce_bft_e>4</windforce_bft_e>
            <windforce_kmh_e>22</windforce_kmh_e>
            <winddir_e>S</winddir_e>
            <rr_e>70</rr_e>
            <temp_n>6</temp_n>
            <wrcode_n>5</wrcode_n>
            <symbol_n>wolkig_n</symbol_n>
            <windforce_bft_n>4</windforce_bft_n>
            <windforce_kmh_n>20</windforce_kmh_n>
            <winddir_n>S</winddir_n>
            <rr_n>40</rr_n>         
        </details>

    </day>

    <day date="08.11.2014">
        <tmax>11</tmax>
        <tmin>6</tmin>
        <wrcode>5</wrcode>
        <symbol>wolkig</symbol>
        <rr>30</rr>
        <windforce_bft>4</windforce_bft>
        <windforce_kmh>22</windforce_kmh>
        <winddir>SW</winddir>
        <sunrise>07:30</sunrise>
        <sunset>16:34</sunset>
        <sunshine>3</sunshine>

        <details>
            <temp_m>9</temp_m>
            <symbol_m>bedeckt</symbol_m>
            <wrcode_m>6</wrcode_m>
            <windforce_bft_m>4</windforce_bft_m>
            <windforce_kmh_m>28</windforce_kmh_m>
            <winddir_m>S</winddir_m>
            <rr_m>30</rr_m>
            <temp_a>11</temp_a>
            <symbol_a>wolkig</symbol_a>
            <wrcode_a>5</wrcode_a>
            <windforce_bft_a>4</windforce_bft_a>
            <windforce_kmh_a>22</windforce_kmh_a>
            <winddir_a>SW</winddir_a>
            <rr_a>15</rr_a>
            <temp_e>10</temp_e>
            <wrcode_e>5</wrcode_e>
            <symbol_e>wolkig</symbol_e>
            <windforce_bft_e>3</windforce_bft_e>
            <windforce_kmh_e>19</windforce_kmh_e>
            <winddir_e>S</winddir_e>
            <rr_e>10</rr_e>
            <temp_n>6</temp_n>
            <wrcode_n>5</wrcode_n>
            <symbol_n>wolkig_n</symbol_n>
            <windforce_bft_n>3</windforce_bft_n>
            <windforce_kmh_n>19</windforce_kmh_n>
            <winddir_n>SO</winddir_n>
            <rr_n>10</rr_n>         
        </details>

    </day>

    <day date="09.11.2014">
        <tmax>11</tmax>
        <tmin>6</tmin>
        <wrcode>5</wrcode>
        <symbol>wolkig</symbol>
        <rr>30</rr>
        <windforce_bft>4</windforce_bft>
        <windforce_kmh>24</windforce_kmh>
        <winddir>SO</winddir>
        <sunrise>07:32</sunrise>
        <sunset>16:32</sunset>
        <sunshine>3</sunshine>

        <details>
            <temp_m>9</temp_m>
            <symbol_m>wolkig</symbol_m>
            <wrcode_m>5</wrcode_m>
            <windforce_bft_m>4</windforce_bft_m>
            <windforce_kmh_m>22</windforce_kmh_m>
            <winddir_m>SO</winddir_m>
            <rr_m>15</rr_m>
            <temp_a>11</temp_a>
            <symbol_a>bedeckt</symbol_a>
            <wrcode_a>6</wrcode_a>
            <windforce_bft_a>4</windforce_bft_a>
            <windforce_kmh_a>24</windforce_kmh_a>
            <winddir_a>SO</winddir_a>
            <rr_a>30</rr_a>
            <temp_e>10</temp_e>
            <wrcode_e>5</wrcode_e>
            <symbol_e>wolkig</symbol_e>
            <windforce_bft_e>3</windforce_bft_e>
            <windforce_kmh_e>19</windforce_kmh_e>
            <winddir_e>S</winddir_e>
            <rr_e>10</rr_e>
            <temp_n>7</temp_n>
            <wrcode_n>5</wrcode_n>
            <symbol_n>wolkig_n</symbol_n>
            <windforce_bft_n>3</windforce_bft_n>
            <windforce_kmh_n>17</windforce_kmh_n>
            <winddir_n>SW</winddir_n>
            <rr_n>20</rr_n>         
        </details>

    </day>

    <day date="10.11.2014">
        <tmax>10</tmax>
        <tmin>7</tmin>
        <wrcode>13</wrcode>
        <symbol>regenschauer</symbol>
        <rr>60</rr>
        <windforce_bft>3</windforce_bft>
        <windforce_kmh>19</windforce_kmh>
        <winddir>S</winddir>
        <sunrise>07:34</sunrise>
        <sunset>16:31</sunset>
        <sunshine>2</sunshine>

    </day>

    <day date="11.11.2014">
        <tmax>11</tmax>
        <tmin>7</tmin>
        <wrcode>5</wrcode>
        <symbol>wolkig</symbol>
        <rr>20</rr>
        <windforce_bft>4</windforce_bft>
        <windforce_kmh>20</windforce_kmh>
        <winddir>SO</winddir>
        <sunrise>07:35</sunrise>
        <sunset>16:29</sunset>
        <sunshine>5</sunshine>

    </day>

    <day date="12.11.2014">
        <tmax>11</tmax>
        <tmin>8</tmin>
        <wrcode>5</wrcode>
        <symbol>wolkig</symbol>
        <rr>20</rr>
        <windforce_bft>4</windforce_bft>
        <windforce_kmh>20</windforce_kmh>
        <winddir>O</winddir>
        <sunrise>07:37</sunrise>
        <sunset>16:27</sunset>
        <sunshine>4</sunshine>

    </day>

    <actual_weather>
        <date_time>Freitag, 23:00 Uhr</date_time>
        <symbol>bedeckt_n</symbol>
        <temp>7,4</temp>
        <weatherdesc>Stark bewölkt</weatherdesc>
        <windforce_bft>3</windforce_bft>
        <windforce_kmh>14</windforce_kmh>
        <winddir>SSW</winddir>
    </actual_weather>

</data>

Answer 1

Monotouch includes the System.Xml namespace by default: http://developer.xamarin.com/guides/ios/under_the_hood/assemblies/

You can analyze the data in an xmldocument as follows:

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.LoadXml(dataString);
foreach (XmlElement x in xmlDoc.SelectNodes("weather/data/location/pcode"))
{
     Console.Write(x.InnerXml);
}

dataString is a String containing XML. If you want to use a Stream, use xmlDoc.Load(Stream) instead. The argument for SelectNodes is an XPath expression. I know people don't like W3Schools, but they have a decent Xpath tutorial here: http://www.w3schools.com/xpath/