vs2008: create and consume xml files

Question

what is the best way to create and consume xml files in vs2008? I am not sure if LINQ could be used? are there any good tutorials out there for vs2008 xml?

Answer 1

If you are using office documents, the Open Office XML SDK can be used to manipulate office documents.

http://openxmldevelloper.org/default.aspx

Answer 2

As @Pavel Minaev said, VS2008 is an IDE. Unless we're both reading the question wrong, what you need to be asking is "what is the best way to create and consume XML files in .Net".

That said, XML is so pervasive in .Net that there is no quick and easy answer for this. There are just too many options to choose from to select a single best option. It all depends on what you're doing. However, here are a few places to start. Documentation for all of these can be found in the MSDN library.

• The System.Data.DataTable and System.Data.DataSet's .ReadXml and .WriteXml functions are one easy method.
• Research the System.XML namespace in the MSDN library, paying particular attention to the XmlDocument class, and the XmlReader and XmlWriter classes
• Finally, Serialization has the ability to persist objects as XML documents and read them back into objects from an XML file.
• LINQ is certainly an option

And finally, here's an article for beginners:

http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/dot-net-xml

Edit - added

I'm assuming you don't mean something as simple as opening an XML document in Visual Studio, editing it like a text document, and saving it, which can, of course, be done just like editing any code or text file....