Using WPF to display XML

Question

Hi Folks,

I have a small project that I think WPF would be perfect for, I don't however have that much time so I am looking for feasibility information and pointers. I am trying to display a large number of items from an XML document and from what I have read so far I believe it would be possible to:

Use the XML document as a dataSource.

Load each item from the XML into an object, which is then added to a collection. (Is it possible to bind the XML straight to the collection?)

Using the collection bind it to a view.

Each object in the view is displayed in a similar fashion to that of an HTML table. (Use a custom control in stackPanel vertically?)

There may be thousands of objects within the collection so need to be be able to display only 50/page with the ability to sort and search. (Using collectionView?)

I have seen similar scenarios and examples on the web but most are watered down, I don't want to start this and then hit a brick wall when I could create a web based solution.

If anyone could tell me if it's possible, point me in the right direction or highlight any potential problem areas it would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Consider this sample xml file:

<Employees>
  <Employee ID="101">
    <Name>Ram</Name>
    <Salary>5000</Salary>
  </Employee>
  <Employee ID="102">
    <Name>Siva</Name>
    <Salary>7000</Salary>
  ...
</Employee>

You can load the data from an xml file like this:

XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(yourFilePath);

Then you can query it like this:

var filterQuery = from i in doc.Descendants("someNode")
                  where (float)i.Element("Salary") >= 6000.00
                  orderby (string)i.Element("Name")
                  select (string)i.Element("Name");

Create an ObservableCollection out of it

var filteredList = new ObservableCollection(filterQuery);

Bind this to your ListView or other Collection in xaml.

You can implement sorting and searching logics on the doc and re-populate your ObservableCollection anytime and the changes would be automatically reflected in the ListView.