Question

I don’t understand why I am getting errors when parsing an xml file. I have a class:

class FileSignature
{
    public string signature{ get; set; }
    public string[] extensions{ get; set; }
    public string description { get; set; }
}

I basically need to populate a list of FileSignature List<FileSignature> by parsing an xml file: the xml file looks like:

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

<Files>
  <File>
    <Signature>482B424544562050726F6475637473204C6963656E7365204B65792046696C650000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001A</Signature>
    <Extension>KEY</Extension>
    <Description>AviraProductKey</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>FFFE570069006E0064006F0077007300200052006500670069007300740072007900200045006400690074006F0072002000560065007200730069006F006E00200035002E0030003000</Signature>
    <Extension>REG</Extension>
    <Description>RegistryDataFile5.00</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>41565020416E7469766972616C2044617461626173652E202863294B6173706572736B79204C616220313939372D32</Signature>
    <Extension>AVC</Extension>
    <Description>KasperskyAnti-VirusDatabase</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>00000002FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000</Signature>
    <Extension>MAC</Extension>
    <Description>MacPaintBitmapGraphic</Description>
  </File>      
  <File>
    <Signature>52494646????????415649204C495354</Signature>
    <Extension>AVI</Extension>
    <Description>WindowsAudioVideoInterleave</Description>
  </File>      
  <File>
    <Signature>464C5601</Signature>
    <Extension>FLV</Extension>
    <Description>FlashVideo</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>1</Signature>
    <Extension>MPG</Extension>
    <Description>MPEGVideoFile</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>465753</Signature>
    <Extension>SWF</Extension>
    <Description>MacromediaFlashFormat</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>435753</Signature>
    <Extension>SWF</Extension>
    <Description>ShockwaveFlash(v5+)</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>FFD8FF</Signature>
    <Extension>JPG</Extension>
    <Description>JPEG/JIFFImage</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>1F8B08</Signature>
    <Extension>GZ</Extension>
    <Description>GZipCompressedArchive</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>1F9D90</Signature>
    <Extension>Z</Extension>
    <Description>UNIXCompressedArchive</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>494433</Signature>
    <Extension>MP3</Extension>
    <Description>MP3Audio</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>FFFB</Signature>
    <Extension>MP3</Extension>
    <Description>MP3Audio</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>FFFA</Signature>
    <Extension>MP3</Extension>
    <Description>MP3Audio</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>4D5A</Signature>
    <Extension>EXE|COM|DLL|SYS</Extension>
    <Description>WindowsExecutable</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>424D</Signature>
    <Extension>BMP</Extension>
    <Description>WindowsOS/2BitmapGraphics</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>9501</Signature>
    <Extension>SKR</Extension>
    <Description>PGPPrivateKeyring</Description>
  </File>
  <File>
    <Signature>9901</Signature>
    <Extension>PKR</Extension>
    <Description>PGPPublicKeyring</Description>
  </File>

</Files>

and I don’t understand why my code is not working. I don’t want the xml file to be in exact order. In other words I want to treat:

  <File>
    <Signature>4D5A</Signature>
    <Extension>EXE|COM|DLL|SYS</Extension>
    <Description>WindowsExecutable</Description>
  </File>

just like:

 <File>
    <Description>WindowsExecutable</Description>        
    <Extension>EXE|COM|DLL|SYS</Extension>
    <Signature>4D5A</Signature>
  </File>

and my code for parsing that xml file is:

class FileSignature
{
    public string signature;
    public string[] extensions;
    public string description { get; set; }
}

// Constructor here is where I start implementing the algorithm
class FileSignatures
{
    public static List<FileSignature> Files;

    public FileSignatures()
    {
        // list where to place the files
        Files = new List<FileSignature>();


        // that is the path where the xml is located
        XmlTextReader reader = new XmlTextReader(@"A:\Users\Tono\Desktop\SaveContentFromCache\SaveContentFromCache\FileSignatures.xml");


        while (reader.Read())
        {
            // if we find a file element then
            if (reader.Name.ToString().ToLower().Equals("file"))
            {
                // place that entire xml in a string
                string temp = reader.ReadInnerXml().ToString();

                // Create an XmlReader
                XmlReader readerOfParent = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(temp));

                FileSignature f = new FileSignature();
                while (readerOfParent.Read()) // !!!!!!!!!!!! here is where I get the error 
                {
                    if (readerOfParent.Name.ToString().ToLower().Contains("signature"))
                        f.signature = readerOfParent.ReadInnerXml().ToString();

                    if (readerOfParent.Name.ToString().ToLower().Contains("extension"))
                        f.extensions = readerOfParent.ReadInnerXml().ToString().Split('|');

                    if (readerOfParent.Name.ToString().ToLower().Contains("description"))
                        f.description = readerOfParent.ReadInnerXml().ToString();
                }

                Files.Add(f);
                readerOfParent.Close();


            }

        }
    }

}

EDIT

Reading my algorithm might look confusing. I just need to place the content from the xml file into c#

Answer 1

XDocument xdoc= XDocument.Load(@"A:\Users\Tono\Desktop\SaveContentFromCache\SaveContentFromCache\FileSignatures.xml");

List<FileSignature> fileSignatures = (from file in xdoc.Element("Files").Elements("File")
         select new FileSignature
         {
           signature= file.Element("Signature").Value,
           extensions= file.Element("Extension").Value.Split('|'),
           description = file.Element("Description").Value
         }).ToList();