CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#winformscomboboxtextbox
stackoverflowknitter
stackoverflowknitter

Reputation: 25

Fill textboxes with data from a combobox, connected with xml

I get the combobox to show the "Name", but when clicking on the name, the "type" and "living" does not want to show up in the textboxes.

Also, is there a way to get this to work without the <'data><'/data> in the xml?

The data.xml

    <?xml version="1.0"?>
    <Data>
    <Start Name="Anaconda" type="Snake" living="Nowhere" />
    <Start Name="Sphynx" type="Cat" living="Everywhere" />
    <Start Name="Amanita muscaria" type="Fungus" living="Woodstock" />
    </Data>

the C# code:

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        DataSet dataSet = new DataSet();
        dataSet.ReadXml("data.xml");
        this.comboBox1.DataSource = dataSet.Tables[0];
        this.comboBox1.DisplayMember = "Name";
    }

Upvotes: 0

Views: 579

Answers (1)

Faenrig
Faenrig

Reputation: 197

This is a headstart to have the values bound to some textboxes:

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        var dataSet = new DataSet();
        var bindingSource = new BindingSource();
        bindingSource.DataSource = dataSet.ReadXml("data.xml");

        comboBox1.DisplayMember = "Name";
        comboBox1.DataSource = dataSet.Tables[0];

        tbName.DataBindings.Add("Text", comboBox1.SelectedItem, "Name");
        tbType.DataBindings.Add("Text", comboBox1.SelectedItem, "type");
        tbLiving.DataBindings.Add("Text", comboBox1.SelectedItem, "living");
    }
}

EDIT:

A complete example puts the read content of the XML file into a class and binds that to all controls.

Shoutouts to @Jimi for Binding a TextBox to a ListBox SelectedItem. This helped really much as orientation.

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    #region Private Members

    /// <summary>
    /// The content list to bind to.
    /// </summary>
    private BindingList<Data> mData = null;

    /// <summary>
    /// The item to bind to.
    /// </summary>
    private BindingSource mDataSource = null;

    #endregion

    #region Constructor

    /// <summary>
    /// Default constructor.
    /// </summary>
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        // Get binding content
        mData = GetXmlData("data.xml");

        // Prepare the binding source from the read content
        mDataSource = new BindingSource(mData, null);

        // Set what is to be displayed
        comboBox1.DisplayMember = "Name";
        comboBox1.DataSource = mDataSource;

        // Bind textboxes
        tbName.DataBindings.Add(new Binding("Text", mDataSource, "Name", false, DataSourceUpdateMode.OnPropertyChanged));
        tbType.DataBindings.Add(new Binding("Text", mDataSource, "type", false, DataSourceUpdateMode.OnPropertyChanged));
        tbLiving.DataBindings.Add(new Binding("Text", mDataSource, "living", false, DataSourceUpdateMode.OnPropertyChanged));
    }

    #endregion

    /// <summary>
    /// Reads the provided XML file and puts it into a structured binding list.
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns></returns>
    private BindingList<Data> GetXmlData(string xmlFile)
    {
        // Create a data set and read the file
        var dataSet = new DataSet();
        dataSet.ReadXml(xmlFile);

        // Convert the content to a List<Data>
        var data = dataSet.Tables[0].AsEnumerable().Select(r => new Data
        {
            Name = r.Field<string>("Name"),
            Type = r.Field<string>("type"),
            Living = r.Field<string>("living")
        }).ToList();

        // Return the content as BindingList<Data>
        return new BindingList<Data>(data);
    }
}

In this case you would need a class to put the content of the file into. The Data class is as follows:

/// <summary>
/// The structure of a read XML file.
/// </summary>
public class Data
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The name of an item.
    /// </summary>
    public string Name { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// The type of an item.
    /// </summary>
    public string Type { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// The living space of an item.
    /// </summary>
    public string Living { get; set; }
}

It was mentioned before that one would need a unique identifier to deal with double data. Here you don't. The combo box binds to objects of Data and is unique to itself.

Upvotes: 1

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