Question

I have a simple XML document with data needed to fill in an HTML template. Using C#, how do I pull the data and fill in an HTML template page?

Assuming:

string baseurl = "http://mysite.com/page.aspx?id=";

XML Data – Data.xml:

<container>
    <item>
        <name>Clark</name>
        <id>10</id>
        <range>week</type>
    </item>
    <item>
        <name>Cowlitz</name>
        <id>11</id>
        <range>daily</range>
    </item>
</container>

HTML Template – Default.aspx:

<asp:Repeater ID="Repeater1" runat="server">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <h3><%# Eval("Name") %></h3>
        <img src="<% baseurl %><%# Eval("id") %>
        &range=<%# Eval("range") %>" alt="<%# Eval("name") %>" />
    </ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

I apologize for the simple question, but I simply cannot find a good recipe for this task. I’m not sure if I should use a repeater, or if I should format all the HTML in the codebehind and then dump it into something like a Literal.

This was a fairly simple task using my prior language, but with C#, I’m finding that there are many ways of handling XML, and I’m really not sure which one I should pursue for such a limited and seemingly simple task.

Thanks for any advice.
Dan

Answer 1

You should look at the XmlDataSource class. There are numerous good tutorials around the place.