CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#htmlxml
David Taghipour
David Taghipour

Reputation: 27

How to convert html markup to xml markup and vice versa

I need an algorithm to convert following HTML and XML markups to each other My markup is really simple (just nested div tags and img tag), So i don't want to use .dll or libraries like HTMLAgilityPack and ...

HTML

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-md-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 column">
    <div class="ge-content">
     <img src="/blabla.jpg" data-Type="Slider" data-Width="Full"></img>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

<div class="row">
  <div class="col-md-6 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 column">
    <div class="ge-content">
      <img src="/blabla.jpg" data-Type="Foo" data-Height="100"></img>
    </div>
  </div>

<div class="col-md-6 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 column">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 column">
      <div class="ge-content">
        <img src="/blabla.jpg" data-Type="Collection" data-Width="Full" data-DisplayOrder="5"></img>
      </div>
    </div>
   </div>
 </div>
</div>

XML

<root>
   <row>
      <column>
         <ge-content>
            <UserControl>
               <Type>Slider</Type>
               <Width>Full</Width>
            </UserControl>
         </ge-content>
         <class>col-md-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12</class>
      </column>
   </row>
   <row>
      <column>
         <ge-content>
            <UserControl>
               <Type>Foo</Type>
               <Height>100</Height>
            </UserControl>
         </ge-content>
         <class>col-md-6 col-sm-12 col-xs-12</class>
      </column>
      <column>
         <row>
            <column>
               <ge-content>
                  <UserControl>
                     <Type>Collection</Type>
                     <Width>Full</Width>
                     <DisplayOrder>5</DisplayOrder>
                  </UserControl>
               </ge-content>
               <class>col-md-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12</class>
            </column>
         </row>
         <class>col-md-6 col-sm-12 col-xs-12</class>
      </column>
   </row>
</root>

Upvotes: 1

Views: 259

Answers (1)

Sergii Zhevzhyk
Sergii Zhevzhyk

Reputation: 4202

XSLT could be used for such transformation. .NET Framework provides built-in support for XSL transformation and you don't need to use third-party libraries. There is no magic so you still need to write transformation rules.

Example

What?

Let's pretend that you have a valid XML ("from.xml") as input

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
   <div class="row">
      <div class="col-md-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 column">
         <div class="ge-content">
            <img src="/blabla.jpg" data-Type="Slider" data-Width="Full" />
         </div>
      </div>
   </div>
   <div class="row">
      <div class="col-md-6 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 column">
         <div class="ge-content">
            <img src="/blabla.jpg" data-Type="Foo" data-Height="100" />
         </div>
      </div>
      <div class="col-md-6 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 column">
         <div class="row">
            <div class="col-md-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 column">
               <div class="ge-content">
                  <img src="/blabla.jpg" data-Type="Collection" data-Width="Full" data-DisplayOrder="5" />
               </div>
            </div>
         </div>
      </div>
   </div>
</root>

How?

You could use this XSL file ("how.xsl"). This file should give you the basic understanding how to write transformation rules.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
   <xsl:template match="/">
      <root>
         <xsl:apply-templates />
      </root>
   </xsl:template>
   <xsl:template match="div[@class='row']">
      <row>
         <xsl:for-each select="div">
            <column>
               <xsl:apply-templates />
               <xsl:variable name="length" select="string-length(@class)" />
               <class>
                  <xsl:value-of select="substring(@class, 1, $length - 7)" />
               </class>
            </column>
         </xsl:for-each>
      </row>
   </xsl:template>
   <xsl:template match="div[@class='ge-content']">
      <ge-content>
         <xsl:apply-templates />
      </ge-content>
   </xsl:template>
   <xsl:template match="img">
      <UserControl>
         <xsl:value-of select="@data-Type" />
      </UserControl>
      <xsl:choose>
         <xsl:when test="@data-Height">
            <Height>
               <xsl:value-of select="@data-Height" />
            </Height>
         </xsl:when>
      </xsl:choose>
      <xsl:choose>
         <xsl:when test="@data-DisplayOrder">
            <DisplayOrder>
               <xsl:value-of select="@data-DisplayOrder" />
            </DisplayOrder>
         </xsl:when>
      </xsl:choose>
      <xsl:choose>
         <xsl:when test="@data-Width">
            <Width>
               <xsl:value-of select="@data-Width" />
            </Width>
         </xsl:when>
      </xsl:choose>
   </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The next step is to apply the transformation rules to your input file.

var xslt = new XslTransform();
xslt.Load("how.xsl"); 
xslt.Transform("from.xml", "to.xml");

The same approach can be used to generate HTML files from XML files.

Upvotes: 2

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