Question

I’ve got an XML file that is created via my Windows form to save two text fields and 2 date time pickers.

I am wondering how to “load” (preferably by asking the user where the file is) this back into my form so that it can be edited and saved again.

public class Values 
{
    public string task1_name { get; set;}
    public string task1_desc { get; set;}
    public DateTime task1_date { get; set;}
    public DateTime task1_time { get; set;}
}

Save Button on my form

void SavebuttonClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    DialogResult dialogResult = MessageBox.Show("Are you sure you want to save?",
        "Save", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo);

    if (dialogResult == DialogResult.Yes)
    {
        Values v = new Values();
        v.task1_name = this.task1_name.Text;
        v.task1_desc = this.task1_desc.Text;
        v.task1_date = this.task1_date.Value;
        v.task1_time = this.task1_time.Value;
        SaveValues(v);  
    }
}

Third Part

public void SaveValues(Values v)
{
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Values));
    using (TextWriter textWriter = new StreamWriter(@"E:\TheFile.xml"))
    {
        serializer.Serialize(textWriter, v);
    }
}

Answer 1

You can do this:

public void SomeMethod()
{
    Values v = LoadValues();
    this.task1_name.Text = v.task1_name;
    this.task1_desc.Text = v.task1_desc;
    this.task1_date.Value = v.task1_date;
    this.task1_time.Value = v.task1_time;
}

public Values LoadValues()
{
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Values));
    using (TextReader textReader = new StreamReader(@"E:\TheFile.xml"))
    {
        return (Values)serializer.Deserialize(textReader);
    }
}

I recommend to have the serializer in one variable so it won’t be created each time (it’s expensive to construct a new XmlSerializer)

Hope it helps