Question

XPath Queries Using XmlDocument and SelectSingleNode

Asked by: SketchySteve

Hi guys and thanks for looking,

I have a new project where fixed text can be accessed by either AJAX or a .NET page. I decided to place the text in an XML file to avoid duplication.

Initially I used an int ID and a method "GetErrorMessageById" to retrieve the item of text. This works fine and both the call and the method are shown in the code snippet.

then I decided to use a string value instead using the method GetErrorMessageByFieldId which is alos illustrated below. This is the one I am having an issue with as it wont return any nodes when called.

Please cna some one let me know what i'm doing wrong here and suggest a fix or a work around.

All code and XML below.

public sealed class ProjectSpecific
    {
        public static string GetErrorMessageById(int nMessageID)
        {
            XmlDocument xmlErrorMessages = GetXMLErrorMessagesDocument();
            return xmlErrorMessages.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("message[id=" + nMessageID.ToString() + @"]").FirstChild.NextSibling.InnerText;
        }
        public static string GetErrorMessageByFieldId(string strFieldID)
        {
            XmlDocument xmlErrorMessages = GetXMLErrorMessagesDocument();
            return xmlErrorMessages.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("message[field_id=" + strFieldID + @"]").FirstChild.NextSibling.InnerText;
        }
 
        private static XmlDocument GetXMLErrorMessagesDocument()
        {
            XmlDocument xmlErrorMessages = new XmlDocument();
 
            if (HttpContext.Current.Cache["ErrorMsg_XML"] != null)
                xmlErrorMessages = (XmlDocument)HttpContext.Current.Cache["ErrorMsg_XML"];
            else
            {
                xmlErrorMessages.Load(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/includes/xml/ErrorMessageCopy.xml"));
                HttpContext.Current.Cache["ErrorMsg_XML"] = xmlErrorMessages;
            }
            return xmlErrorMessages;
        }
    }
 
______________________________________________________________
 
 
string str1 = Utils.ProjectSpecific.GetErrorMessageById(1);
 
string str2 = Utils.ProjectSpecific.GetErrorMessageByFieldId("tbForename");
 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
 
<messages>
  <message>
    <id>0</id>
    <text>You must supply your forename</text>
    <fieldid>tbForename</fieldid>
  </message>
  <message>
    <id>1</id>
    <text>You must supply your surname</text>
    <field_id>tbSurname</field_id>
  </message>
  <message>
    <id>2</id>
    <text>You must supply your home address</text>
    <field_id>tbHomeAddress</field_id>
  </message>
  <message>
    <id>3</id>
    <text>You must supply your mobile number</text>
    <field_id>tbMobileNumber</field_id>
  </message>
  <message>
    <id>4</id>
    <text>You must supply a valid email address</text>
    <field_id>tbEmailAddress</field_id>
  </message>
</messages>

                                  
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
30:
31:
32:
33:
34:
35:
36:
37:
38:
39:
40:
41:
42:
43:
44:
45:
46:
47:
48:
49:
50:
51:
52:
53:
54:
55:
56:
57:
58:
59:
60:
61:
62:
63:
64:

Select allOpen in new window

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2008-01-15 at 04:11:16ID23083574
Tags

C#

Topics

Microsoft Visual C#.Net

,

Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT)

,

.Net Editors & IDEs

Participating Experts
1
Points
125
Comments
4

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. xml string and an xpath expression
    I have an xml string and an xpath expression. I would like a result by applying the xpath expression to the xml string, without loading an xmlDocument object with the xml string. What is the fastest way to do this, while avoiding to load the whole document into memory? I wo...
  2. XPath on XmlDocument with namespaces (without hardco…
    Hello Experts I have a XmlDocument loaded from a file. The file may contain namespaces (e.g. save an office document as XML (Excel2002, Word2003..)) but it could also contain plain xml. Now I want to run a xpath entered by the user or defined in a configuration file - but th...
  3. XMLDocument or XMLReader?
    Hi, I have an XML file which contains 'meta data' for my application such as values for combo boxes, etc. It's structure is like this: <MetaData> <ComboValues1> <ComboValue1>value1</ComboValue1> <ComboValue1>value2</ComboValu...
  4. Find xpath to xml node
    Hi, I need to create a function that loops through an xml nodes children and writes out the child node name, innertext & xpath path of the child node. I can get the innertext & node name but am not sure how I would get the xpath. Anyone any idea if this is possible? ...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: existenz2Posted on 2008-01-15 at 04:53:10ID: 20662025

The following XPath query will return node which holds value '1'. You will need the parent node from that to get the corresponding message node.

messages/message/id[.  ='1']

                                              
1:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: existenz2Posted on 2008-01-15 at 04:53:48ID: 20662032

Sorry that should be:

message/id[.  ='1']

                                              
1:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: SketchyStevePosted on 2008-01-15 at 05:23:54ID: 20662273

Dont you just hate it when it turns out to be something sooooo obvious!

Thanks for the help. the reason

return xmlErrorMessages.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("message[id=" + nMessageID.ToString() + @"]")

And

 return xmlErrorMessages.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("message[fieldid=" + strFieldID + @"]")

Dint was because id is an int and does not need single quotes. How ever when using a string then we need to enclose it.

[fieldid='' strFeidlID]

Cheers!

 

by: SketchyStevePosted on 2008-01-15 at 05:30:27ID: 31421719

Cheers mate, just needed a nudge in the right direction. Much hair pulling avoided!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...