Question

What is the best way to return XML from a controller’s action in ASP.NET MVC? There is a nice way to return JSON, but not for XML. Do I really need to route the XML through a View, or should I do the not-best-practice way of Response.Write-ing it?

Answer 1

Use MVCContrib‘s XmlResult Action.

For reference here is their code:

public class XmlResult : ActionResult {     private object objectToSerialize;      /// <summary>     /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref='XmlResult'/> class.     /// </summary>     /// <param name='objectToSerialize'>The object to serialize to XML.</param>     public XmlResult(object objectToSerialize)     {         this.objectToSerialize = objectToSerialize;     }      /// <summary>     /// Gets the object to be serialized to XML.     /// </summary>     public object ObjectToSerialize     {         get { return this.objectToSerialize; }     }      /// <summary>     /// Serialises the object that was passed into the constructor to XML and writes the corresponding XML to the result stream.     /// </summary>     /// <param name='context'>The controller context for the current request.</param>     public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)     {         if (this.objectToSerialize != null)         {             context.HttpContext.Response.Clear();             var xs = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(this.objectToSerialize.GetType());             context.HttpContext.Response.ContentType = 'text/xml';             xs.Serialize(context.HttpContext.Response.Output, this.objectToSerialize);         }     } }