Combine a serialized object with an existing xml doc and return it?

Question

Hello, I'm trying to figure out to to combine a serialized object with an existing xml doc and return it as a webservice.

Thanks ahead for you help.

Sample code:

[WebMethod]
    public string GetApple()
    {

    Apples apples = Report.GetReport();
    //  this returns:
        //  <Apples xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://tempuri.org/"&gt;
        //  <Name>Smtih</Name>
        //  <Size>11</Size>
        //  <Weight>111</Weight>
        //  <Color>Red</Color>
        //  </Apples>

    string TemplatePath = Server.MapPath("~/Template.xml");
        // this is:
        // <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
        // <applereport>
        //  <moretags>
        //    <july>
        //      <report>
        //        <DATA-GOES-HERE></DATA-GOES-HERE>
        //      </report>
        //    </july>
        //  </moretags>
        // </applereport>

        // Read TemplatePath into a memory stream
        // find the node: <DATA-GOES-HERE></DATA-GOES-HERE>
        // 
        // put serialixed output of Report.GetReport() where <DATA-GOES-HERE></DATA-GOES-HERE> is

        return FullReport;
}

Answer 1

You can serialize the object without the namespace and the root and then merge it.

Serializing without the namespace

Answer 2

I don't have time right now for a full example, but look at the [XPathNavigator.AppendChild method](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms163341.aspx).

The idea is to get an XPathNavigator instance pointing in your document to where you want to add data, then use the AppendChild method to produce an XmlWriter. Use that XmlWriter as the parameter to XmlSerializer.Serialize.

You can then return the entire XmlDocument.DocumentElement from the web service using the XmlElement type as the return type of the WebMethod.

Answer 3

for my situation this worked:

[WebService(Namespace = "http://tempuri.org/")]
[WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]
// To allow this Web Service to be called from script, using ASP.NET AJAX, uncomment the following line. 
// [System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptService]
public class WebService : System.Web.Services.WebService {

public WebService()
{

    //Uncomment the following line if using designed components 
    //InitializeComponent(); 
}

[WebMethod]
public XmlDocument GetApple()
{

    Apples apples = Report.GetReport();
    //  this returns:
    //  <Apples xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://tempuri.org/"&gt;
    //  <Name>Smtih</Name>
    //  <Size>11</Size>
    //  <Weight>111</Weight>
    //  <Color>Red</Color>
    //  </Apples>

    // Serialization

    string serializedXML = SerializeObject(apples);



    string TemplatePath = Server.MapPath("~/Template.xml");
    // this is:
    // <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
    // <applereport>
    //  <moretags>
    //    <july>
    //      <report>
    //        <DATA-GOES-HERE></DATA-GOES-HERE>
    //      </report>
    //    </july>
    //  </moretags>
    // </applereport>


    // Read TemplatePath into a memory stream
    // find the node: <DATA-GOES-HERE></DATA-GOES-HERE>
    // 
    // put serialixed output of Report.GetReport() where <DATA-GOES-HERE></DATA-GOES-HERE> is
    XmlDocument xdoc = new XmlDocument();
    xdoc.Load(TemplatePath);
    XmlNodeList datagoeshere = xdoc.GetElementsByTagName("DATA-GOES-HERE");
    if (datagoeshere != null && datagoeshere.Count > 0)
        datagoeshere[0].InnerXml = serializedXML;


    return xdoc;
}
/// <summary>
/// To convert a Byte Array of Unicode values (UTF-8 encoded) to a complete String.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="characters">Unicode Byte Array to be converted to String</param>
/// <returns>String converted from Unicode Byte Array</returns>
private String UTF8ByteArrayToString(Byte[] characters)
{
    UTF8Encoding encoding = new UTF8Encoding();
    String constructedString = encoding.GetString(characters);
    return (constructedString);
}

/// <summary>
/// Converts the String to UTF8 Byte array and is used in De serialization
/// </summary>
/// <param name="pXmlString"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
private Byte[] StringToUTF8ByteArray(String pXmlString)
{
    UTF8Encoding encoding = new UTF8Encoding();
    Byte[] byteArray = encoding.GetBytes(pXmlString);
    return byteArray;
}

/// <summary>
/// Method to convert a custom Object to XML string
/// </summary>
/// <param name="pObject">Object that is to be serialized to XML</param>
/// <returns>XML string</returns>
public String SerializeObject(Object pObject)
{
    try
    {
        //Create our own namespaces for the output
        XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();

        //Add an empty namespace and empty value
        ns.Add("", "");


        String XmlizedString = null;
        MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
        XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Apples));
        XmlTextWriter xmlTextWriter = new XmlTextWriterFormattedNoDeclaration(memoryStream, Encoding.UTF8);

        xs.Serialize(xmlTextWriter, pObject, ns);
        memoryStream = (MemoryStream)xmlTextWriter.BaseStream;
        XmlizedString = UTF8ByteArrayToString(memoryStream.ToArray());
        return XmlizedString.Trim();
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine(e);
        return null;
    }
}

public class XmlTextWriterFormattedNoDeclaration : System.Xml.XmlTextWriter
{
    public XmlTextWriterFormattedNoDeclaration(Stream w, Encoding encoding)
        : base(w, encoding)
    {
        Formatting = System.Xml.Formatting.Indented;
    }

    public override void WriteStartDocument() { } // suppress
} }

and the response from the webserivce is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<applereport>
  <moretags>
    <july>
      <report>
        <DATA-GOES-HERE>
          <Apples>
  <Name>Smtih</Name>
  <Size>11</Size>

  <Weight>111</Weight>
  <Color>Red</Color>
</Apples>
        </DATA-GOES-HERE>
      </report>
    </july>
  </moretags>
</applereport>