C# loading a XML file

Question

How can I create a Windows Form with properties provided by an XML document?

Here is such an XML document:

<Form>
   <Size>
     <Width>558</Width> 
     <Height>537</Height> 
   </Size>
   <Text>XML saving</Text> 
   <Name>Form1</Name> 
   <Button>
     <Name>button1</Name> 
     <Text>XML button</Text> 
     <Size>
       <Width>130</Width> 
       <Width>45</Width> 
     </Size>
     <Location>
       <X>14</X> 
       <Y>24</Y> 
     </Location>
   </Button>
 </Form>

Upon loading the form, I need to show the form and the button on it with the values from the XML document.

Can anyone provide any assistance or tutorials on this subject?

Answer 1

There is build-in functionality you can use to save and restore form settings. Use application settings binding .

You can bind such properties as Size, Location, Text, etc of form and it's controls to settings, which will be automatically loaded and applied to controls. Steps:

• Select some control and go to Properties tab
• Find (ApplicationSettings) property under Data category
• Open property binding editor
• Select property you want to save and load from xml and create new setting for that property

---

If you really need to use your xml, then you should parse it manually. You can create some (extension) methods like (sample with Linq to Xml):

public static void ApplySettings(this Button button, XDocument xdoc)
{
    var settings = xdoc
                 .Descendatns("Button")
                 .SingleOrDefault(b => (string)b.Element("Name") == button.Name);

    if (settings == null)
       return;

    button.Text = (string)settings.Element("Text");
    var location = settings.Element("Location");
    if (location != null)
    {
        button.X = (int)location.Element("X");
        button.Y = (int)location.Element("Y");
    }

    //etc
}

And call those method for each control:

var xdoc = XDocument.Load(settings_file);
button1.ApplySettings(xdoc);
// etc