ASP.Net MVC3- Returning Serialized XML object to calling view

Question

Using a Razor form (Html.BeginForm()) I am calling an action in my BooksController which making an api call to www.isbndb.com to get book information. After serializing the XML response, I am unsure how to pass that data back to use in the calling view.

Create.cshtml

@using (Html.BeginForm("searchForISBN", "Books"))
        {
            @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Title)
            <input class="btn " id="searchForISBN" type="submit" value="Search" />
        }

XML response

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <ISBNdb server_time="2005-07-29T03:02:22">
        <BookList total_results="1">
            <BookData book_id="paul_laurence_dunbar" isbn="0766013502">
                <Title>Paul Laurence Dunbar</Title>
                <TitleLong>Paul Laurence Dunbar: portrait of a poet</TitleLong>
                <AuthorsText>Catherine Reef</AuthorsText>
                <PublisherText publisher_id="enslow_publishers">
                    Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, c2000.</PublisherText>
                <Summary> A biography of....</Summary>
                <Notes>"Works by Paul Laurence Dunbar": p. 113-114.
                   Includes bibliographical references (p. 124) and index.</Notes>
                <UrlsText></UrlsText>
                <AwardsText></AwardsText>
             </BookData>
        </BookList>
  </ISBNdb>

BooksController Action

public StringBuilder searchForISBN(Books books)
    {
        HttpWebRequest request = WebRequest.Create("http://isbndb.com/api/books.xml?access_key=xxxxxx&index1=title&value1="+books.Title) as HttpWebRequest;
        string result = null;
        using (HttpWebResponse resp = request.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse)
        {
            StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(resp.GetResponseStream());
            result = reader.ReadToEnd();
        }
        StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();
        using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(result)))
        {
            reader.ReadToFollowing("BookList");
            reader.MoveToFirstAttribute();
            reader.MoveToNextAttribute();
            reader.MoveToNextAttribute();
            reader.MoveToNextAttribute();
            string shown_results = reader.Value;
            int numResults;
            bool parsed = Int32.TryParse(shown_results, out numResults);

            for (int i = 0; i < numResults; i++)
            {
                reader.ReadToFollowing("BookData");
                reader.MoveToFirstAttribute();
                reader.MoveToNextAttribute();
                string isbn = reader.Value;
                output.AppendLine("The isbn value: " + isbn);
            }
        }
        return ouput;
    }

I am trying to return the data to the calling view to display the results below the search-bar form in Create.cshtml. Currently it is returning a new view with the path localhost:xxxxx/Books/searchForISBN.

Any ideas on how to do this?

Clay Compton · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-02 19:04:25Z

1

XmlReader is a low-level API that's meant for performance-critical code, and, as you've surmised, it doesn't, by itself, create an object for you that can be passed to the view.

You might want to consider creating your own strongly-typed object that encapsulates all of the information returned by isbndb.com. You could also, in a pinch, use the XmlDocument class, and query properties off of it using XPath.

    XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
    doc.Load(stream);
    string xpath = "data/element[@id='paul_laurence_dunbar']/AuthorsText";
    XmlNode node = doc.SelectSingleNode(xpath);
    if (node != null) {
          Console.WriteLine(node.InnerText);
    }

HTH. Clay

answered Oct 2, 2012 at 19:04

Clay Compton

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Comments

utsavized · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-02 19:07:11Z

0

You could return the View directly. Like such:

return View("CallingViewName",model);

You may have to build a model of the serialized XML book info that you'd want to pass back to the view though.

answered Oct 2, 2012 at 19:07

utsavized

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