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Sams Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days

Sep 16, 2005

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Using XML Controls to Display Formatted XML

The .NET platform supports an XML control that you can use to format and display XML. In this section you'll take a look at how to use your full states data XML example, which appears in Listing 21.3, in this control.

Example 21.3. A Sample XML Document (`ch21_03.xml`)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding ="UTF-8"?>
<states>

    <state>
        <name>California</name>
        <population units="people">33871648</population><!--2000 census-->
        <capital>Sacramento</capital>
        <bird>Quail</bird>
        <flower>Golden Poppy</flower>
        <area units="square miles">155959</area>
    </state>

    <state>
        <name>Massachusetts</name>
        <population units="people">6349097</population><!--2000 census-->
        <capital>Boston</capital>
        <bird>Chickadee</bird>
        <flower>Mayflower</flower>
        <area units="square miles">7840</area>
    </state>

    <state>
        <name>New York</name>
        <population units="people">18976457</population><!--2000 census-->
        <capital>Albany</capital>
        <bird>Bluebird</bird>
        <flower>Rose</flower>
        <area units="square miles">47214</area>
    </state>

</states>

You use the XML control in Web applications, not Windows applications; it lets you display XML documents such as ch21_03.xml directly in a Web page. The XML control also lets you use XSLT to format the XML as you want it. Rather than display XML directly, you usually use the XML control with an XSLT style sheet to transform an XML document into HTML to be displayed in a Web page. Listing 21.4 shows the XSLT style sheet, ch21_04.xsl, that you'll use in this case. This XSLT style sheet will extract the data in ch21_03.xml and format it into an HTML table that the XML control can display.

Example 21.4. A Sample XSLT Style Sheet (`ch21_04.xsl`)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

    <xsl:template match="/states">
        <HTML>
            <HEAD>
                <TITLE>
                    State Data
                </TITLE>
            </HEAD>
            <BODY>
                <BR/>
                <BR/>
                <BR/>
                <TABLE BORDER="1">
                    <TR>
                        <TD>Name</TD>
                        <TD>Population</TD>
                        <TD>Capital</TD>
                        <TD>Bird</TD>
                        <TD>Flower</TD>
                        <TD>Area</TD>
                    </TR>
                    <xsl:apply-templates/>
                </TABLE>
            </BODY>
        </HTML>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="state">
       <TR>
          <TD><xsl:value-of select="name"/></TD>
          <TD><xsl:apply-templates select="population"/></TD>
          <TD><xsl:apply-templates select="capital"/></TD>
          <TD><xsl:apply-templates select="bird"/></TD>
          <TD><xsl:apply-templates select="flower"/></TD>
          <TD><xsl:apply-templates select="area"/></TD>
       </TR>
   </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="population">
        <xsl:value-of select="."/>
        <xsl:text> </xsl:text>
        <xsl:value-of select="@units"/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="capital">
        <xsl:value-of select="."/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="bird">
        <xsl:value-of select="."/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="flower">
        <xsl:value-of select="."/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="area">
        <xsl:value-of select="."/>
        <xsl:text> </xsl:text>
        <xsl:value-of select="@units"/>
    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Table 21.1 lists the significant properties of XML controls.

Table 21.1. Significant Public Properties of XML Controls

Property	Description
`Document`	Returns or sets the `System.Xml.XmlDocument` object to display in the XML control.
`DocumentContent`	Sets a string that contains the XML document to display in the XML control.
`DocumentSource`	Returns or sets the path to an XML document to display in the XML control.
`Transform`	Returns or sets the `System.Xml.Xsl.XslTransform` object that formats the XML document.
`TransformSource`	Returns or sets the path to an XSLT style sheet that formats the XML document.

In our example, all we have to do is assign the name of our XML document to a new XML control's DocumentSource property and assign to the TransformSource property the name of our XSLT style sheet.

To host the XML control, we'll need a .NET Web application. To create Web applications, you need to use Internet Information Server (IIS) and configure it for use with .NET. The Visual Studio .NET installation documentation describes how to do this.

You can create a new Web application by selecting File, New, Project to open the New Project dialog box. Then you select Visual Basic Projects in the Project Types box and ASP.NET Web Application in the Templates box. Finally, give this new project the name ch21_05. Figure 21.17 shows what this looks like.

Figure 21.17 Creating the ch21_05 example.

When you click the OK button in the New Project dialog box, the new Web application is created on the server you selected, and you can work with this application locally, as shown in Figure 21.18. In this case, you've added a label with the text "Using the XML Control" to your main Web form.

Figure 21.18 Editing the ch21_05 example.

Next, drag an XML control from the Web Forms tab in the toolbox to the main Web form. Then select that control and click the DocumentSource property in the properties window at the lower right in Visual Studio. Click the ellipsis (…) button that appears in the properties window and browse to your XML document, ch21_03.xml. Next, click the TransformSource property in the properties window, click the ellipsis button that appears, and browse to your XSLT style sheet, ch21_04.xsl.

You're ready to run this example, so select Debug, Start. When you run this application, you'll see the data in ch21_03.xml formatted using the XSLT style sheet in ch21_04.xsl into an HTML table, as shown in Figure 21.19.

Figure 21.19 Using XML controls.

Now you're transforming XML into HTML by using XSLT and an XML control.

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