Read then write html to xml file using linq xml and xml writer

Question

I am reading the Value of a element <content>Text with break</content> into a string and showing that string in a TextBox. Afterwards the user can modify it possibly with additional HTML tags. Upon using linq to query the exact node to insert the user-input all spiky bracket <> from html tags are normalized into  . So how do I preseve my html tags?

I already read and tried the solutions from these questions but I failed to apply it to my use case: c# XML avoid html encode using XDocument

Get html tags embedded in xml using linq

Keep HTML tags in XML using LINQ to XML

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/charlie/archive/2008/09/29/linq-farm-preserving-formats-with-linq-to-xml.aspx

This is an example of my xml file:

<events>
    <event id="0">
        <content><br/></content>
    </event>
</events>

How I load and query:

XDocument xml;
XmlTextReader xtr = new XmlTextReader(this.pathXML);

xtr.Normalization = false;
xml = XDocument.Load(xtr, LoadOptions.PreserveWhitespace);
xtr.Close();

var nodeToEdit = xml.Descendants("event").Where(x => (string)x.Attribute("id") == "0");

How I manipulate my xml file with user input:

string userinput = "Text with <br /> break"; // This is read from TextBox control inside Form
foreach (var item in nodeToEdit.Elements())
{
    if(item.Name == "content")
    {
        item.Value = userinput;
    }
}

How I save:

changeSaveIndent(xml, this.pathXML);
public static void changeSaveIndent(XDocument x, string path)
{
    XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
    settings.Indent = true;
    // Indent by tab. Can be changed to "    " or similar
    settings.IndentChars = "\t";

    using (XmlWriter writer = XmlTextWriter.Create(path, settings))
    {
        x.Save(writer);
    }
}

My expected xml output file should look like this:

<events>
    <event id="0">
        <content>Text with <br /> break</content>
    </event>
</events>

sorry for the long post..

Your expected output should be <events> <event id="0"> <content>Text with break</content> </event> </events> — Robert McKee
– Robert McKee, Commented Mar 17, 2015 at 7:25

Dan Field · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-17 11:51:58Z

1

Replace this:

if(item.Name == "content")
{
    item.Value = userinput;
}

with this:

if(item.Name == "content")
{
    item.ReplaceWith(XElement.Parse("<content>" + userinput + "</content>"));
}

Just note that your user input will have to be valid XML for this to work. If not, you'd probably be best off breaking out the call to XElement.Parse into a try catch block or just adding the input as unescaped CDATA, like so:

if (item.Name == "content")
{
    item.Value = "";
    item.Add(new XCData(userinput));
}

Which would produce XML that looks like this:

...
<content><![CDATA[Text with <br /> break]]></content>
...

edited Mar 17, 2015 at 11:51

answered Mar 17, 2015 at 4:39

Dan Field

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2 Comments

Takeru Over a year ago

When I use item.ReplaceWith(); I get this error: Error 1 'System.Xml.Linq.XElement.Parse(string, System.Xml.Linq.LoadOptions)' is a 'method' but is used like a 'type'. Any ideas?

Dan Field Over a year ago

Sorry, take out the new.

Robert McKee · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-16 23:53:15Z

0

Based on what you are describing, I would say that you are using the wrong format in your XML file. isn't describing a new node in the XML file at all, you are using it as part of content, and therefore it should be encoded. But that said, if you must retrieve and set the content node like you describe, you want .InnerXml, not .Value or .Text or .InnerText

answered Mar 16, 2015 at 23:53

Robert McKee

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2 Comments

Takeru Over a year ago

item inside the foreach loop does not have InnerXml, text or InnerText. is not intended to be a new node. It is part of the node called content. Or have I misunderstoof your point? Usually content is filled with a lot of text occasionally using html tags because the xml file is going to be processed later on by another tool out of my control. and I also dont have control over how I get it.

Robert McKee Over a year ago

Yes, the point was that by allowing unescaped tags inside content, they become their own nodes, which isn't what you want. You must either encode them, or put them in a CDATA section. Whoever is reading the XML file, when they ask for the text of the content section should be unescaping the data prior to processing it. Most XML parsers should do this automatically.

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