how to add new item to list of items in XML

[Ali_51]

using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.IO;

namespace Genesis_Solutions_CRMS
{
    public partial class formNewAccount : Form
    {
        public formNewAccount()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Information info = new Information();
            info.Name = txtName.Text;
            info.Occupation = txtOccupation.Text;
            info.Dob = double.Parse(txtDob.Text.ToString());
            info.Nic = double.Parse(txtNic.Text.ToString());
            info.ID = double.Parse(lblID.Text.ToString());
            XMLConfigurarion.XMLConf(info, "DATA.xml");
         }
    }
}

[Suzie999]

The question is broad, and with no relevant code to work with.
It is in you best interests to at least show the classes you are working with.

[necrovore]

Tutorial to get you started.

[JOSheaIV]

I can easily help you with the XML, but I need to know what exactly you want written to the XML, and if you have specific structure in mind.

Details on what needs to be done, and some context would greatly help all of us (just throwing up some code with no backing causes even more questions).

[lithium112]

Hello Ali,

I really like to use the LINQ to XML approach to adding elements and attributes to the XML doc. You'll need to use 'using System.XML.Linq' in order to do this.

Here's an example you can go by:

Let's say I have stored users inside of my xml file. In order to add an entire element to my doc, I will first instantiate my XDocument like so:

private XDocument xDoc = new XDocument();

You will also want the path to your xml file:

private string path = YourXMLPath;

Now you want to load your xml file into xDoc:

xDoc = XDocument.Load(path);

Now you're set to start reading and writing to your xml document. In order to write to your document, it really depends on what your structure is, so here's a sample xml template:

<Table>
<User Name="Name1" Age="20" Gender="Male" Job="Sales" />
</Table>

Here's how you can create a brand new element under Users:

First, I want to put my template inside of an XElement variable:

XElement users = xmlDoc.Element("Table");

The variable addUserToXml will hold my user information from the xml file.

Now let's build a brand new User Element.

var addUser = new XElement("User",
                  new XAttribute("Name", txtName.Text),
                  new XAttribute("Age", txtAge.Text),
                  new XAttribute("Gender", ddlGender.Text),
                  new XAttribute("Job", txtJob.Text));

Next you want to go ahead and add that User element:

users.Add(new XElement(addUser));

Then save the file:

users.Save(path)

This will add a brand new element under the Table element for a new user every time a user signs up and hits the save button or however you want it setup.

I am going to go ahead and show you a nice elegant way you can read the information from the xml file as well using LINQ to XML. What I will typically do is create a totally new class and create a read function that I can call from anywhere to avoid duplication of code. I will typically have a class called XmlManager that manages all of my xml for me so that I can keep my code nice and clean.

public static DataTable GetUserInformation(){
    var datatable = new DataTable();
    datatable.Columns.Add("Name");
    //Add all columns to DataTable
    xmlDoc = XDocument.Load(xmlPath);
    var linqQuery = from doc in xmlDoc.Elements("Table").Elements("User")
                    select new{
                        Name = doc.Attribute("Name").Value,
                        Age = doc.Attribute("Age").Value,
                        Gender = doc.Attribute("Gender").Value,
                        etc.
                    }
    foreach (var user in linqQuery){
        datatable.Rows.Add(user.Name, user.Age, user.Gender, etc.);
    }

    return datatable;
}

Now you can read that data inside of the datatable. Or you could use a list or whatever you really want to read the data from the datatable. This was a little more info than what you asked for, but if you want to use LINQ to XML, I'd suggest using it with both read and write using XDocument. One other comment, if the file contains sensitive information, make sure that it is encrypted. If it is encrypted, you'll need to decrypt the file or string (depending on how you access the information) before manipulating the data. Hopefully others can benefit from this. I had to struggle through it and look up tons of documentation when I was learning to read and write from and to xml documents.

Here are some nice tutorials that may also help:
http://www.dotnetcurry.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=564
http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/353127-linq-by-example-5-linq-to-xml-querying/

Happy Coding!