Format XML in Browser (asp.net, linq to xml)

Question

Is there an easy way to write an XElement object to a browser so that it's formatted nicely, like this: http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/demos/UserInfoWriter.2.aspx ? I don't want to have to create any sort of strongly typed class, or explicitly write every node.

Example:

var xElement = new XElement("test", new XElement("node", "1"));

can I do something with xElement at this point?

Answer 1

Have you tried just using an XML server control and that doesnt meet your needs? It is specifically for the purpose of displaying XML on a web page.

Here is the link to MSDN

Answer 2

It depends on what you're trying to do, but if you change content type to text/xml the browser will display formatted XML. However, this won't work if you have other content you're trying to display on the page.

Answer 3

Well if you want to serialize that XElement object to the browser use eg

Response.ContentType = "application/xml";
xElement.Save(Response.OutputStream);

As others have noted, that is only useful if your ASP.NET page sends nothing but that XML document to the browser.