Showing XML content on ASP.NET page

Question

I am trying to do a simple web application in ASP.NET Framework 4.5.2 (in Visual Studio 2013). I want to read contents from an XML file, validate the content to a schema, show it on default.aspx page, and maybe later add buttons to edit these contents and re-write the changes to the XML-file. The problems I have is that I can't even figure out how to display the contents in a listView (which according to my searching is a suitable choice of control).

In the Default.aspx.cs, in the Page_Load method (is this the right place for it?), I have done the following:

XDocument document = XDocument.Load(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "/App_Data/orders.xml");
        XmlSchemaSet schemas = new XmlSchemaSet();
        schemas.Add("", XmlReader.Create(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "/App_Data/orderschema.xsd"));
        bool errors = false;

        document.Validate(schemas, (o, err) =>
        {
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Validation error: {0}", err.Message);
            errors = true;
        });

        if (!errors)
        {
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("XML document successfully validated.");

        }
        else
        {
            System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("XML document does not validate.");
        }

This seems to work fine. The loaded document seems to be validated successfully and if I make an error in the XML, the validation will fail.

The XML file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<shiporder orderid="889923">
  <orderperson>John Smith</orderperson>
  <shipto>
    <name>Ola Nordmann</name>
    <address>Langgt 23</address>
    <city>4000 Stavanger</city>
    <country>Norway</country>
  </shipto>
  <item>
    <title>Empire Burlesque</title>
    <note>Special Edition</note>
    <quantity>1</quantity>
    <price>10.90</price>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>Hide your heart</title>
    <quantity>1</quantity>
    <!--Change to "one" to see validation error-->
    <price>9.90</price>
  </item>
</shiporder>

As you can see it contains orders, and it will likely contain more orders within tags.

The schema looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

  <xs:element name="shiporder">
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence>
        <xs:element name="orderperson" type="xs:string"/>
        <xs:element name="shipto">
          <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
              <xs:element name="name" type="xs:string"/>
              <xs:element name="address" type="xs:string"/>
              <xs:element name="city" type="xs:string"/>
              <xs:element name="country" type="xs:string"/>
            </xs:sequence>
          </xs:complexType>
        </xs:element>
        <xs:element name="item" maxOccurs="unbounded">
          <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
              <xs:element name="title" type="xs:string"/>
              <xs:element name="note" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"/>
              <xs:element name="quantity" type="xs:positiveInteger"/>
              <xs:element name="price" type="xs:decimal"/>
            </xs:sequence>
          </xs:complexType>
        </xs:element>
      </xs:sequence>
      <xs:attribute name="orderid" type="xs:string" use="required"/>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>

</xs:schema>

Finally I have tried to search for how to populate and manage the listView control, but cannot find anything accurate. I found this for example: Populate ListView from XML file But it doesn't seem to work in my case since it is about Win Forms. I have tried a lot of different approaces but cant seem to figure it out.

My Default.aspx looks like this right now:

<%@ Page Title="Test" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Site.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1._Default" %>

<asp:Content ID="BodyContent" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">

    <div class="jumbotron">
        <h2>Orders</h2>
        <p>Showing orders from XML-file</p>

        <asp:ListView ID="listViewOrders" DataSourceID="listViewOrders" runat="server">

        </asp:ListView>
        <asp:Table ID="Table1" runat="server"></asp:Table>

    </div>

</asp:Content>

As you can see, I tried setting the property DataSourceID in the ListView control as recommended on msdn ( https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb398790.aspx#Code Examples) But I don't know how to use it in the C# code as the code examples that I have found on MSDN refer to usage of SQL databases.

Sorry for lengthy post and if something is unclear or should be obvious to me, please let me know. I am seeking a simplistic solution as I am not very experienced within web application programming. Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Convert your XML into data-set using below syntax.

DataSet testdataset = new DataSet();
testdataset.ReadXml("InputXmlAsString/FilePath/etc....");

then assign this dataset/datatable as a datasource of your ListViewControl id "listViewOrders"