How to bind XML with namespace to WPF DataGrid ?

Question

Hello again,

I have a use-case where I need to bind data from an XML file to a WPF DataGrid. I prepared this example to demonstrate what I'll be doing in my final code.

This is Books.xml:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
 <library>
   <books>
  <book id="1" name="The First Book" author="First Author">
    First Book Content
  </book>
  <book id="2" name="The Second Book" author="Second Author">
    Second Book Content
  </book>
   </books>
 </library>

And here is how I bind it my DataGrid control. First XAML:

<Window x:Class="LinqToXmlBinding.Window1"
 xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
 xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
 xmlns:toolkit="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wpf/2008/toolkit"
 Title="Window1" Height="300" Width="400">
 <Grid>
  <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
   <ColumnDefinition Width="268*" />
   <ColumnDefinition Width="110*" />
  </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
  <toolkit:DataGrid Name="xmlBoundDataGrid" Margin="1" ItemsSource="{Binding Path=Elements[book]}">
   <toolkit:DataGrid.Columns>
    <toolkit:DataGridTextColumn Header="Book ID" Binding="{Binding Path=Attribute[id].Value}"/>
    <toolkit:DataGridTextColumn Header="Book Name" Binding="{Binding Path=Attribute[name].Value}"/>
    <toolkit:DataGridTextColumn Header="Content" Binding="{Binding Path=Value}"/>
   </toolkit:DataGrid.Columns>
  </toolkit:DataGrid>
  <StackPanel Name="myStackPanel" Grid.Column="1">
   <Button Name="bindToXmlButton" Click="bindToXmlButton_Click">Bind To XML</Button>
  </StackPanel>
 </Grid>
</Window>

Then, C# code:

const string _xmlFilePath = "..//..//Books.xml";
private void bindToXmlButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
     XElement books = XElement.Load(_xmlFilePath).Element(myNameSpace + "books");
     xmlBoundDataGrid.DataContext = books;
}

Now, if I defined an XML namespace at the root element of Books.XML to be http://my.namespace.com/books; I know I can get that namespace programmatically like so:

XNamespace myNameSpace = XElement.Load(_xmlFilePath).Attribute("xmlns").Value;

But, how can I retrieve this namespace in XAML in order to access the "book" element? And what are the best practices in that regard?

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

Sorry if I got you wrong, but

• If you need to access elements from default namespace like xmlns="...", you should use regular syntax like Path=Attribute[name].Value

• If you have XML with namespace with prefix, like xmlns:ns="..." and elements inside this namespace like , you may try to use Path=Elements["ns:book"]

Hope this helps.