How can I use an XSLT to transform XML to HTML in C#?

Question

I am stuck in firstly creating a simple xslt. stylesheet to use for transforming an xml object.Secondly I am stuck in actually using the xslt stylesheet to do the transformation.

The background is the following:

I have a web part which is essentially a small form that has three inputs. These inputs then get submitted and used to query an external API by Http GET request. The results of the query then are displayed on a separate page in XML format. What I now need is to transform the xml to html and output that instead of the XML.

What I currently have:

I have a string variable "tmp" that holds the results from an api query by http get request. The results of the query get stored in the variable and I am able to display the results using: (Code given are small snippets of the whole code which are the most relevant for this particular case)

StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());
string tmp = reader.ReadToEnd();

Response.Write(tmp);
Response.End();

I then use "tmp" as an XML document object like so:

XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load(tmp);

To my project I then added an xslt file that will be used for the transformation.

Here is where I am stuck:

I have created the XML document object as listed above. How do I then proceed to use the XSLT file I have added to my project to do the transformation?
How do I actually achieve the transformation to have the output transformed to HTML.

I have been struggling with this for the best part of a week now.

James Johnson · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-19 15:19:17Z

5

Here's a simple example of how to use XSLT to transform XML into HTML:

string tmp = "<XML DATA>";
StringBuilder sbXslOutput = new StringBuilder();   

using (XmlWriter xslWriter = XmlWriter.Create(sbXslOutput))  
{  
    XslCompiledTransform transformer = new XslCompiledTransform();  
    transformer.Load("transformer.xsl");  
    XsltArgumentList args = new XsltArgumentList();  

    XmlDataDocument doc = new XmlDataDocument();
    doc.Loadxml(tmp);

    transformer.Transform(doc, args, xslWriter);  
}  

string dataSetHtml = sbXslOutput.ToString();

Let's say this is your XML:

<RecentMatter>   
  <UserLogin>PSLTP6\RJK</UserLogin>   
  <MatterNumber>99999-2302</MatterNumber>   
  <ClientName>Test Matters</ClientName>   
  <MatterName>DP Test Matter</MatterName>   
  <ClientCode>99999</ClientCode>   
  <OfficeCode/>   
  <OfficeName/>   
  <Billable>true</Billable>   
  <ReferenceId/>   
  <LastUsed>2011-08-23T23:40:24.13+01:00</LastUsed>   
</RecentMatter>   
<RecentMatter>   
  <UserLogin>PSLTP6\RJK</UserLogin>   
  <MatterNumber>999991.0002</MatterNumber>   
  <ClientName>Lathe 1</ClientName>   
  <MatterName>LW Test 2</MatterName>   
  <ClientCode/>   
  <OfficeCode/>   
  <OfficeName/>   
  <Billable>true</Billable>   
  <ReferenceId/>   
  <LastUsed>2011-07-12T16:57:27.173+01:00</LastUsed>   
</RecentMatter>   
<RecentMatter>   
  <UserLogin>PSLTP6\RJK</UserLogin>   
  <MatterNumber>999991-0001</MatterNumber>   
  <ClientName>Lathe 1</ClientName>   
  <MatterName>LW Test 1</MatterName>   
  <ClientCode/>   
  <OfficeCode/>   
  <OfficeName/>   
  <Billable>false</Billable>   
  <ReferenceId/>   
  <LastUsed>2011-07-12T01:59:06.887+01:00</LastUsed>   
</RecentMatter>   
</NewDataSet>

Here's an XSLT script that transforms the XML to HTML:

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">  
  <xsl:template match="/">  
      <table border="1">  
        <tr>  
          <th>User Login</th>  
          <th>Matter Number</th>  
          ...  
        </tr>  
        <xsl:for-each select="NewDataSet/RecentMatter">  
          <tr>  
            <td>  
              <xsl:value-of select="UserLogin"/>  
            </td>  
            <td>  
              <xsl:value-of select="MatterNumber"/>  
            </td>  
            ...  
          </tr>  
        </xsl:for-each>  
      </table>  
  </xsl:template>  
</xsl:stylesheet>

answered Oct 19, 2011 at 15:19

James Johnson

46.1k8 gold badges75 silver badges111 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Dev P Over a year ago

Thanks a lot James, this seems to be exactly what I am looking for. I will give this a go now and hopefully get this issue resolved. Many Thanks

James Johnson Over a year ago

Great. Don't forget to accept the answer if you're satisfied.

Dev P Over a year ago

Hi James, at: string tmp = "<XML DATA>"; tmp is the string that already holds/stores xml data. Can i get away with just using it as is without having to actually asssigned xml data as you have suggested?

Ghasem Over a year ago

Hey James. Is it possible to create XSL for XML programmatically?

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:59:13Z

1

You can write to a memory stream:

MemoryStream mStream = new MemoryStream();
mXslt.Transform(new XPathDocument(new XmlNodeReader(mXml)), null, mStream );
mStream.Position = 0;
StreamReader mReader = new StreamReader(mStream);
string mOutput = mReader.ReadToEnd();

Use XPathDocument and XslCompiledTransform. They are much faster than XslTransform and XmlDocument. Even if you use an XmlDocument to create the xml, covert it to an XPathDocument for the transform.

Refer this also for more info: Simplest way to transform XML to HTML with XSLT in C#?

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:59

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Oct 19, 2011 at 14:56

Siva Charan

18.1k10 gold badges64 silver badges95 bronze badges

3 Comments

Richard Over a year ago

If under ASP.NET you can do the transform directly to the HTTP response stream: HttpResponse.Output is a TextWriter and some of the overloads of XslCompiledTransform.Transform take a TextWriter for the output parameter.

Dev P Over a year ago

Thanks for all your suggestions

int32 Over a year ago

+1, do you have any references stating why its faster? i have to do a lot of transforming in a project and sometimes get performance issues when using large files..

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How can I use an XSLT to transform XML to HTML in C#?

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

3 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related