Question

I am using Linq to XML with the eBay API and am unable to retrieve even basic information from the XML returned. I have tried every combination of from x in y select z etc but am having no luck.

I am loading the data with

var xml = XDocument.Load ("http://svcs.ebay.com/services/search/FindingService/v1?OPERATION-NAME=findItemsByKeywords&SERVICE-VERSION=1.0.0&SECURITY-APPNAME=***MY-KEY-OBSCURED**&RESPONSE-DATA-FORMAT=XML&REST-PAYLOAD&keywords=yamaha&paginationInput.entriesPerPage=1&paginationInput.pageNumber=1");

And I get back the following XML according to the console and LINQPad.

<findItemsByKeywordsResponse xmlns="http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services">   <ack>Success</ack>   <version>1.11.0</version>   <timestamp>2011-09-04T12:15:10.595Z</timestamp>   <searchResult count="1">
    <item>
      <itemId>220841819907</itemId>
      <title>YAMAHA RX-V592 SURROUND SOUND RECEIVER</title>
      <globalId>EBAY-US</globalId>
      <primaryCategory>
        <categoryId>14981</categoryId>
        <categoryName>Receivers</categoryName>
      </primaryCategory>
      <galleryURL>http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/pict/2208418199074040_1.jpg</galleryURL>
      <viewItemURL>http://www.ebay.com/itm/YAMAHA-RX-V592-SURROUND-SOUND-RECEIVER-/220841819907?pt=Receivers_Tuners</viewItemURL>
      <productId type="ReferenceID">46568009</productId>
      <paymentMethod>PayPal</paymentMethod>
      <autoPay>false</autoPay>
      <postalCode>76638</postalCode>
      <location>Crawford,TX,USA</location>
      <country>US</country>
      <shippingInfo>
        <shippingServiceCost currencyId="USD">22.0</shippingServiceCost>
        <shippingType>Flat</shippingType>
        <expeditedShipping>false</expeditedShipping>
        <oneDayShippingAvailable>false</oneDayShippingAvailable>
        <handlingTime>3</handlingTime>
        <shipToLocations>US</shipToLocations>
      </shippingInfo>
      <sellingStatus>
        <currentPrice currencyId="USD">51.0</currentPrice>
        <convertedCurrentPrice currencyId="USD">51.0</convertedCurrentPrice>
        <bidCount>13</bidCount>
        <sellingState>Active</sellingState>
        <timeLeft>P0DT0H18M17S</timeLeft>
      </sellingStatus>
      <listingInfo>
        <bestOfferEnabled>false</bestOfferEnabled>
        <buyItNowAvailable>false</buyItNowAvailable>
        <startTime>2011-08-28T12:33:27.000Z</startTime>
        <endTime>2011-09-04T12:33:27.000Z</endTime>
        <listingType>Auction</listingType>
        <gift>false</gift>
      </listingInfo>
      <returnsAccepted>false</returnsAccepted>
      <condition>
        <conditionId>3000</conditionId>
        <conditionDisplayName>Used</conditionDisplayName>
      </condition>
      <isMultiVariationListing>false</isMultiVariationListing>
    </item>   </searchResult>   <paginationOutput>
    <pageNumber>1</pageNumber>
    <entriesPerPage>1</entriesPerPage>
    <totalPages>819204</totalPages>
    <totalEntries>819204</totalEntries>   </paginationOutput>   <itemSearchURL>http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=yamaha&amp;_ddo=1&amp;_ipg=1&amp;_pgn=1</itemSearchURL> </findItemsByKeywordsResponse>

Can anyone please help me find the 1st tier info such as ack and version and then the information nested within searchResult->Item.

So by the above I mean the values of the elements…

findItemsByKeywordsResponse->ack
findItemsByKeywordsResponse->version

and also the nested information

findItemsByKeywordsResponse->searchResult->item->itemId
findItemsByKeywordsResponse->searchResult->item->title

I have spent days trawling sites for the answer but have found no working solution.

Answer 1

You haven’t shown any of the code that you’ve tried, but I strongly suspect you’re just missing the namespace. Code like this:

XNamespace ns = "http://www.ebay.com/marketplace/search/v1/services"

XElement ack = doc.Root.Element(ns + "ack");
XElement version = doc.Root.Element(ns + "version");
IEnumerable<string> itemIds = doc.Root.Elements(ns + "searchResult")
                                      .Element(ns + "item")
                                      .Element(ns + "itemId")
                                      .Select(x => (string) x);