Sharepoint Advanced Tips: XPath

Showing posts with label XPath. Show all posts

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Using XPath to manage data returned by a SharePoint Web Service

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 13px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: #e9ab17; PADDING-TOP: 10px">Topic:

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 18px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 18px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: gray; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Using
XPath to navigate through elements and attributes in an XML document
returned by a SharePoint Web Service.
This article proposes some
examples which will show to developers how to use XPath in spite of namespaces
present in the XML returned by Web services of SharePoint

style="PADDING-LEFT: 26px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: #e9ab17; PADDING-TOP: 10px">1
- Business benefits (the "why" part of the post)

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 31px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 18px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: gray; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">SharePoint
provides Web Services that can be consumed in order for example to get data
from a SharePoint Site, and display them within another web site or a
desktop application.
It is a part of what is commonly called "SOA" in
companies.
On the other hand, this principle can be applied to retrieve data
from SharePoint Internet facing web site so as they can be a part of a mashup in
a web site.

style="PADDING-LEFT: 26px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: #e9ab17; PADDING-TOP: 10px">2-
Development benefits

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 31px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 18px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: gray; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">XPath
allows developers to quickly navigate through elements and attributes in an XML
document. It is very useful when there is no namespaces in the parsed XML, but
it becomes more difficult when namespaces are used in the XML, especially if
there is several namespaces and that they are present at different locations
within the XML code.

style="PADDING-LEFT: 26px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; PADDING-BOTTOM: 10px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: #e9ab17; PADDING-TOP: 10px">2-
Common examples

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 31px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 18px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: gray; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">To
give common examples, we are going to use the Lists Web Service and two of its
methods.
This is a short Microsoft documentation excerpt and a link to
it:

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 31px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: gray; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/lists.aspx">Lists Web
Service
The Lists Web service provides methods for working with
SharePoint lists, content types, list items, and files.
To access this Web
service set a Web reference to

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 40px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: gray; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">http://<site>/_vti_bin/Lists.asmx

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 31px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 18px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: gray; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"> -
The GetListCollection Method returns the names and GUIDs for all lists in a
specific web site, and the complete SOAP XML returned by the web service looks
like this one:

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes"><?style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">xmlstyle="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">versionstyle="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">=style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">'style="COLOR: blue">1.0' style="COLOR: red">encoding='style="COLOR: blue">utf-8'?>prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/>

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes"><style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">soap:Envelopestyle="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">style="mso-spacerun: yes"> style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">xmlns:soapstyle="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">=style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">'style="COLOR: blue">http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'style="COLOR: blue">

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">style="mso-spacerun: yes"> style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">xmlns:xsistyle="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">=style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">'style="COLOR: blue">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'style="COLOR: blue">

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">style="mso-spacerun: yes"> style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">xmlns:xsdstyle="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">=style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">'style="COLOR: blue">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'style="COLOR: blue">>

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">style="mso-spacerun: yes"> style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA"><lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">soap:Bodylang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">>

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes"> <style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">GetListCollectionResponselang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">xmlnslang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">'style="COLOR: blue">http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/'style="COLOR: blue">>

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">Listlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">DocTemplateUrllang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">''style="COLOR: blue"> DefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">/product/Lists/Demos/AllItems.aspx'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">MobileDefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='' style="COLOR: red">ID='style="COLOR: blue">{91465226-671A-42EC-98ED-52C8C13403A1}'style="COLOR: blue"> Titlestyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">D…

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">Listlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">DocTemplateUrllang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">'style="COLOR: blue">/product/Documents/Forms/template.doc'style="COLOR: blue"> DefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">/product/Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">MobileDefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='' style="COLOR: red">ID='style="COLOR: blue">{3A9CB2…

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">Listlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">DocTemplateUrllang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">''style="COLOR: blue"> DefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">/product/PublishingImages/Forms/AllItems.aspx'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">MobileDefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='' style="COLOR: red">ID='style="COLOR: blue">{CB49539A-F215-41D3-8675-8CB6A0FAE9E2…

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">Listlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">DocTemplateUrllang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">''style="COLOR: blue"> DefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">/product/_catalogs/masterpage/Forms/AllItems.aspx'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">MobileDefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='' style="COLOR: red">ID='style="COLOR: blue">{E5E53853-B2A1-414F-AD18-62B6B274…

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">Listlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">DocTemplateUrllang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">''style="COLOR: blue"> DefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='/product/Lists/News and
Reviews/AllItems.aspx' style="COLOR: red">MobileDefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='' style="COLOR: red">ID='style="COLOR: blue">{45A63226-979A-402A-A029-6115AF0BE184…

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">Listlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">DocTemplateUrllang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">''style="COLOR: blue"> DefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">/product/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">MobileDefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='' style="COLOR: red">ID='style="COLOR: blue">{B61087A0-9E16-451D-8132-1038BFFB63F5}'style="COLOR: blue"> Titlestyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">P…

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">Listlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">DocTemplateUrllang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">''style="COLOR: blue"> DefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='/product/Lists/Web
Casts/AllItems.aspx' style="COLOR: red">MobileDefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='' style="COLOR: red">ID='style="COLOR: blue">{70F8653B-D81E-4AEE-8336-5A55789EB717}'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">Titl…

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">Listlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">DocTemplateUrllang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">''style="COLOR: blue"> DefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">/product/WorkflowTasks/AllItems.aspx'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">MobileDefaultViewUrlstyle="COLOR: blue">='' style="COLOR: red">ID='style="COLOR: blue">{75C8921E-9214-4212-998C-7AF611020D8D}'style="COLOR: blue"> Titlestyle="COLOR: blue">=…

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes"></style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">soap:Envelopestyle="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">>

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 31px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 18px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: gray; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">
Now
this is the first example that shows how to manage the namespaces concern with
XPath. We will retrieve all the nodes corresponding to the SharePoint lists:

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
XmlNamespaceManager ns = style="COLOR: blue">new style="COLOR: #2b91af">XmlNamespaceManager(doc.NameTable);

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
ns.AddNamespace("soap", style="COLOR: #a31515">"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/");

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">ns.AddNamespace(style="COLOR: #a31515">"namespace", style="COLOR: #a31515">"http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/");

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes">

style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
XmlNodeList Lists =
doc.SelectNodes(style="COLOR: #a31515">"//soap:Envelope/soap:Body/namespace:GetListCollectionResponse/namespace:GetListCollectionResult/namespace:Lists",
ns);style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 31px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 18px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: gray; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">
-
The GetListItems Method returns information about items in the list based on the
specified query and the complete SOAP XML returned by the web service looks like
this one:

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA"><?lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">xmllang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">versionlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">"style="COLOR: blue">1.0" style="COLOR: red">encoding="style="COLOR: blue">utf-8"style="COLOR: blue">?>

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA"><lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">soap:Envelopelang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">xmlns:soaplang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">"style="COLOR: blue">http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"style="COLOR: blue"> xmlns:xsistyle="COLOR: blue">="style="COLOR: blue">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"style="COLOR: blue"> xmlns:xsdstyle="COLOR: blue">="style="COLOR: blue">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLS...

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">GetListItemsResponselang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">xmlnslang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">"style="COLOR: blue">http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/"style="COLOR: blue">>

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">listitemslang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">xmlns:slang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">'style="COLOR: blue">uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3-00AA00C14882'style="COLOR: blue"> xmlns:dtstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">uuid:C2F41010-65B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882'style="COLOR: blue"> xmlns:rsstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">urn:schemas-microsof...

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">rs:datalang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">ItemCountlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">"style="COLOR: blue">6"style="COLOR: blue">>

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">z:rowlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">ows_SilverlightBackgroundURLlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">'style="COLOR: blue">http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/PublishingImages/home-2010_beta_banner.jpg'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">ows_HyperlinkURLstyle="COLOR: blue">='http://
...

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">z:rowlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">ows_LinkTitlelang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">'style="COLOR: blue">Enterprise Social Computing with SharePoint'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">ows_SilverlightBackgroundURLstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Publishin...

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">z:rowlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">ows_LinkTitlelang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">'style="COLOR: blue">Save Money with SharePoint'
ows_SilverlightBackgroundURLstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/PublishingImages/SP_News_S...

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">z:rowlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">ows_LinkTitlelang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">'style="COLOR: blue">Introducing Microsoft Office 2010 Beta'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">ows_SilverlightBackgroundURLstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/PublishingImag...

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">z:rowlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">ows_LinkTitlelang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">'style="COLOR: blue">Microsoft Office for the Mac SP2'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">ows_SilverlightBackgroundURLstyle="COLOR: blue">='style="COLOR: blue">http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/PublishingImages/SP_...

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
<style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #a31515; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">z:rowlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">ows_SilverlightBackgroundURLlang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">=lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">'style="COLOR: blue">http://msn.com'
ows_HyperlinkURLstyle="COLOR: blue">='http://msn.com,
http://msn.com' style="COLOR: red">ows_HyperlinkXoffsetstyle="COLOR: blue">='-50'style="COLOR: blue"> style="COLOR: red">ows_Hype..

style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 31px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 18px; MARGIN: 1px 0px; COLOR: gray; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">

This
is the second example that shows how to manage the namespaces concern with
XPath. We will retrieve all the nodes corresponding to the items of a SharePoint
list:

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
ns.AddNamespace("soap", style="COLOR: #a31515">"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/");

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
ns.AddNamespace("namespace", style="COLOR: #a31515">"http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/");

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">

style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">style="FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA">style="mso-spacerun: yes">
XmlNodeList data =
doc.SelectNodes(style="COLOR: #a31515">"//soap:Envelope/soap:Body/namespace:GetListItemsResponse/namespace:GetListItemsResult/namespace:listitems/rs:data",
ns);

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Read data stored in the custom section of a SharePoint web.config file using XPath

Introduction

In order to store Data shared by all sites, easily usable by server code programming and easy to deploy, some SharePoint Application needs custom entries in the Web Application web.config file. One simple solution is to add a line with a key and a value in the appSettings section.

However, you may need to customize your web.config file with a more complex and structured section. They are many post on how to add a custom section in a web.config for a SharePoint application using programmatically.

then, there is also code sample that shows how to read datas stored in the custom section in order to use them while programming.

Maybe the more complet sample is this one for Asp .Net but usable in SharePoint:

How To Create a Custom ASP.NET Configuration Section Handler in Visual C# .NET

I did practice this solution, but think it is a bit heavy. Then I wondered if it would not be more simple to use xpath to read the data sotred in the Custom ASP.NET Configuration Section of the SharePoint Application Web.config file.

1 - Exposing the business case

To make a clear demonstration, asume we are working for a company that owns several stores, and that the employees want to access to the company SharePoint intranet with Form Based Authentication Mode. We want to manage FBA profiles in order to map FBA roles with the SharePoint Portal application functionnalities like:

Access to a knowledge base

Make in line ordering

Edit order tracking reports

etc.

The FBA roles are the followings;

employee,

manager

owner

Thus, we want to store these FBA roles and Features in our SharePoint Portal web.config file with more technical data as aspnet FBA database connection string name, and we are going first to modify the web.config file

2 - Add a custom section to the SharePoint Portal web.config file

We open the web.config file (after having made a back-up) and add a section group to the configSection section.


    <sectionGroup name="System.Workflow.ComponentModel.WorkflowCompiler" type="System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Compiler.WorkflowCompilerConfigurationSectionGroup, System.Workflow.ComponentModel, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35">
      <section name="authorizedTypes" type="System.Workflow.ComponentModel.Compiler.AuthorizedTypesSectionHandler, System.Workflow.ComponentModel, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
    </sectionGroup>
<!--start adding -->
    <sectionGroup name="myPortal" >
      <section name="profileManagement" type="System.Configuration.SingleTagSectionHandler, System, Version=1.0.5000.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
    </sectionGroup>
<!-- end adding -->
  </configSections>

Then, we add the "myPortal custom section


    <machineKey validationKey="80464397F43642274573BDB3C8C49CA32AD2DD99A86B46EC" decryptionKey="75DF7F2B93BE8584983E065036615D4BB091D5B3C8A668C8" validation="SHA1" />
    <sessionState mode="SQLServer" timeout="60" allowCustomSqlDatabase="true" partitionResolverType="Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.SqlSessionStateResolver, Microsoft.Office.Server, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />
  </system.web>
<!--start adding -->
   <myPortal>
    <profileManagement connectionStringName="AspNetDbFBAConnectionString" applicationName="/" baseStoreFeatures="15" enableSessionState="false">
      <mainRoles>
        <role name="Owner" hasAllFeatures="true" />
        <role name="Manager" hasAllFeatures="true" />
        <role name="Employee" hasAllFeatures="false" />
      </mainRoles>
      <storeFeatures>
        <storeFeature name="PersonalizedHomePage" value="1" />
        <storeFeature name="ContactForm" value="2" />
        <storeFeature name="KnowledgeBase" value="4" default="true" />
        <storeFeature name="MyContacts" value="8" default="true" />
        <storeFeature name="Ordering" value="16" />
        <storeFeature name="Tracking" value="32" />
        <storeFeature name="BusinessReport" value="64" />
        <storeFeature name="FullMask" value="65535" />
      </storeFeatures>
    </profileManagement>
  </myPortal>
<!-- end adding -->
 <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">

3 - Reading data stored in the web.config file

In order to read data stored in the web.config file, we are going to use the XMLExplorateur class that I introduced in a previous post:

Simplify XPath using a C# Class

and that I had completed to be more powerfull.

here is the class code:


        class XMLExplorateur
        {
            protected XPathDocument docNav;
            protected XPathNavigator nav;
            protected XPathNodeIterator xit;
            protected bool initpath = true;
            public XMLExplorateur() { }

            public XMLExplorateur(String path)
            {
                try
                {
                    docNav = new XPathDocument(path);
                    nav = docNav.CreateNavigator();
                }
                catch
                {
                    docNav = null;
                    nav = null;
                }
            }
            public bool Init(String path)
            {
                try
                {
                    docNav = new XPathDocument(path);
                    nav = docNav.CreateNavigator();
                }
                catch
                {
                    docNav = null;
                    nav = null;
                    return false;
                }
                return true;
            }

            public List<string> ValuesOf(String Item)
            {
                List<string> myList = new List<string>();
                if (nav == null) return null;
                String tmp = "descendant::" + Item;
                try
                {
                    xit = nav.Select(tmp);
                    while (xit.MoveNext())
                    {
                        myList.Add(xit.Current.Value);
                    }
                }
                catch
                {
                    myList = null;
                }
                return myList;
            }

            public Dictionary<string, uint> DictionaryStringUintItemsOf(String Item, string att1, string att2)
            {
                Dictionary<string, uint> myDictionary = new Dictionary<string, uint>();
                if (nav == null) return null;
                String tmp = "descendant::" + Item;
                try
                {
                    xit = nav.Select(tmp);
                    while (xit.MoveNext())
                    {
                        myDictionary.Add(xit.Current.GetAttribute(att1, ""), Convert.ToUInt32(xit.Current.GetAttribute(att2, "")));
                    }
                }
                catch
                {
                    myDictionary = null;
                }
                return myDictionary;
            }

            public Dictionary<string, bool> DictionaryStringBoolItemsOf(String Item, string att1, string att2)
            {
                Dictionary<string, bool> myDictionary = new Dictionary<string, bool>();
                if (nav == null) return null;
                String tmp = "descendant::" + Item;
                try
                {
                    xit = nav.Select(tmp);
                    while (xit.MoveNext())
                    {
                        myDictionary.Add(xit.Current.GetAttribute(att1, ""), Convert.ToBoolean(xit.Current.GetAttribute(att2, "")));
                    }
                }
                catch
                {
                    myDictionary = null;
                }
                return myDictionary;
            }

            public String ValueOf(String Item)
            {
                if (nav == null) return "Erreur Navigateur null";
                String tmp = "descendant::" + Item;
                try
                {
                    xit = nav.Select(tmp);
                    if (xit.MoveNext()) tmp = xit.Current.Value;
                    else tmp = "null";
                }
                catch
                {
                    tmp = "null";
                }
                return tmp;
            }
        }

Now, this is the way we can program to read all the data stored in the custom section :


        private static string _connectionStringName = null;
        private static string _applicationName = null;
        private static uint _baseStoreFeatures = uint.MinValue;
        private static Dictionary<string, uint> _availableStoreFeatures = null;
        private static Dictionary<string, bool> _mainRoles = null;
        private static bool _enableSessionState = false;


        void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            XMLExplorateur xe = new XMLExplorateur();

            Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(
                delegate()
                {
                    xe.Init(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/web.config"));
                }
            );

            _connectionStringName = xe.ValueOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/@connectionStringName");

            _applicationName = xe.ValueOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/@applicationName");
            
            _baseStoreFeatures = Convert.ToUInt32(xe.ValueOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/@baseStoreFeatures"));

            _enableSessionState = Convert.ToBoolean(xe.ValueOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/@enableSessionState"));

            _availableStoreFeatures = xe.DictionaryStringUintItemsOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/storeFeatures/storeFeature", "name", "value");

            _mainRoles = xe.DictionaryStringBoolItemsOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/mainRoles/role", "name", "hasAllFeatures");

        }

Here is the complet code of the .aspx page. As it is an application page, place this page in the LAYOUTS directory, and call it from any site of your portal using this url (assume you call the page _readwebconfig.aspx as I did):

http://hostheader/anysite/anysubsite/_layouts/_readwebconfig.aspx


<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true"  %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls"  Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"  %> 
<%@ Register TagPrefix="Utilities" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c"  %>
<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint"  %>
<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages"  %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Collections.Generic"  %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Text"  %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Xml"  %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Xml.XPath"  %>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <title  ></title>
</head>
<body>

    <script runat="server" id="class_XMLExplorateur">

        class XMLExplorateur
        {
            protected XPathDocument docNav;
            protected XPathNavigator nav;
            protected XPathNodeIterator xit;
            protected bool initpath = true;
            public XMLExplorateur() { }

            public XMLExplorateur(String path)
            {
                try
                {
                    docNav = new XPathDocument(path);
                    nav = docNav.CreateNavigator();
                }
                catch
                {
                    docNav = null;
                    nav = null;
                }
            }
            public bool Init(String path)
            {
                try
                {
                    docNav = new XPathDocument(path);
                    nav = docNav.CreateNavigator();
                }
                catch
                {
                    docNav = null;
                    nav = null;
                    return false;
                }
                return true;
            }

            public List<string> ValuesOf(String Item)
            {
                List<string> myList = new List<string>();
                if (nav == null) return null;
                String tmp = "descendant::" + Item;
                try
                {
                    xit = nav.Select(tmp);
                    while (xit.MoveNext())
                    {
                        myList.Add(xit.Current.Value);
                    }
                }
                catch
                {
                    myList = null;
                }
                return myList;
            }

            public Dictionary<string, uint> DictionaryStringUintItemsOf(String Item, string att1, string att2)
            {
                Dictionary<string, uint> myDictionary = new Dictionary<string, uint>();
                if (nav == null) return null;
                String tmp = "descendant::" + Item;
                try
                {
                    xit = nav.Select(tmp);
                    while (xit.MoveNext())
                    {
                        myDictionary.Add(xit.Current.GetAttribute(att1, ""), Convert.ToUInt32(xit.Current.GetAttribute(att2, "")));
                    }
                }
                catch
                {
                    myDictionary = null;
                }
                return myDictionary;
            }

            public Dictionary<string, bool> DictionaryStringBoolItemsOf(String Item, string att1, string att2)
            {
                Dictionary<string, bool> myDictionary = new Dictionary<string, bool>();
                if (nav == null) return null;
                String tmp = "descendant::" + Item;
                try
                {
                    xit = nav.Select(tmp);
                    while (xit.MoveNext())
                    {
                        myDictionary.Add(xit.Current.GetAttribute(att1, ""), Convert.ToBoolean(xit.Current.GetAttribute(att2, "")));
                    }
                }
                catch
                {
                    myDictionary = null;
                }
                return myDictionary;
            }

            public String ValueOf(String Item)
            {
                if (nav == null) return "Erreur Navigateur null";
                String tmp = "descendant::" + Item;
                try
                {
                    xit = nav.Select(tmp);
                    if (xit.MoveNext()) tmp = xit.Current.Value;
                    else tmp = "null";
                }
                catch
                {
                    tmp = "null";
                }
                return tmp;
            }
        }
    </script>

    <script runat="server" id="method">
        
        private static string _connectionStringName = null;
        private static string _applicationName = null;
        private static uint _baseStoreFeatures = uint.MinValue;
        private static Dictionary<string, uint> _availableStoreFeatures = null;
        private static Dictionary<string, bool> _mainRoles = null;
        private static bool _enableSessionState = false;


        void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //XmlDocument document = new XmlDocument();
            XMLExplorateur xe = new XMLExplorateur();

            Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(

                delegate()
                {
                    xe.Init(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/web.config"));
                }

            );

            _connectionStringName = xe.ValueOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/@connectionStringName");
            Response.Write("<br />_connectionStringName: " + _connectionStringName);

            _applicationName = xe.ValueOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/@applicationName");
            Response.Write("<br />_applicationName: " + _applicationName);
            
            
            _baseStoreFeatures = Convert.ToUInt32(xe.ValueOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/@baseStoreFeatures"));
            Response.Write("<br />_baseStoreFeatures:" + " " + _baseStoreFeatures.ToString());

            _enableSessionState = Convert.ToBoolean(xe.ValueOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/@enableSessionState"));
            Response.Write("<br />_enableSessionState:" + " " + _enableSessionState.ToString());

            _availableStoreFeatures = xe.DictionaryStringUintItemsOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/storeFeatures/storeFeature", "name", "value");
            Response.Write("<br /><br />_availableStoreFeatures:");
            foreach (string key in _availableStoreFeatures.Keys)
            {
                Response.Write("<br />Key: " + key + "Value:" + _availableStoreFeatures[key].ToString());
            }

            _mainRoles = xe.DictionaryStringBoolItemsOf("configuration/myPortal/profileManagement/mainRoles/role", "name", "hasAllFeatures");
            Response.Write("<br /><br />_mainRoles:");
            foreach (string key in _mainRoles.Keys)
            {
                Response.Write("<br />Key: " + key + " Value:" + _mainRoles[key].ToString());
            }
        }
        
    </script>
</body>
</html>

You should obtain that result when you call the page.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Read an XML File inside a SharePoint Feature with simplified XPath using a C# Class

While working with SharePoint Customization using WSS object model, we sometimes need to read XML files. A good way to do it is to use XPath.
It is more much usable if you simplify its use by writing a C# Class like the following one :

This class allows you to retrieve a single node value or multiple nodes values :


      public class XMLExplorateur
    {
        protected XPathDocument docNav;
        protected XPathNavigator nav;
        protected XPathNodeIterator xit;
        protected bool initpath = true;
        public XMLExplorateur() { }

        public XMLExplorateur(String path)
        {
            try
            {
                docNav = new XPathDocument(path);
                nav = docNav.CreateNavigator();
            }
            catch
            {
                docNav = null;
                nav = null;
            }
        }
        public bool Init(String path)
        {
            try
            {
                docNav = new XPathDocument(path);
                nav = docNav.CreateNavigator();
            }
            catch
            {
                docNav = null;
                nav = null;
                return false;
            }
            return true;
        }

        public List<string> ValuesOf(String Item)
        {
            List<string> myList = new List<string>();
            if (nav == null) return null;
            String tmp = "descendant::" + Item;
            try
            {
                xit = nav.Select(tmp);
                while (xit.MoveNext())
                {
                    myList.Add(xit.Current.Value);
                }
            }
            catch
            {
                myList = null;
            }
            return myList;
        }

        public String ValueOf(String Item)
        {
            if (nav == null) return "Erreur Navigateur null";
            String tmp = "descendant::" + Item;
            try
            {
                xit = nav.Select(tmp);
                if (xit.MoveNext()) tmp = xit.Current.Value;
                else tmp = "null";
            }
            catch
            {
                tmp = "null";
            }
            return tmp;
        }
    }

And here is the way to use it :
I asume the xml file is inside a feature directory and I want to get informations from this file in my feature FeatureActivated method :


                protected XMLExplorateur xe=new XMLExplorateur();
                public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
                {
                        string[] myDirectoryTable = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(properties.Definition.RootDirectory + @"\Files");
                        String myFileCompletePath = myDirectoryTable[0];
                        xe.Init(myFileCompletePath);

                        myCustomer.FirstName = xe.ValueOf("Customer/FirstName"));
                        myCustomer.LastName= xe.ValueOf("Customer/LastName");

                        List<string> SalesComments = xe.ValuesOf("Customer/SalesComment");
                        foreach (string aComment in SalesComments)
                        {
                            myCustomer.SalesComments.Add(aComment);
                        }
                }

And of course the used xml file content.


<Customer>
    <FirstName>John</FirstName>
    <LastName>Doe</LastName>
    <LatestPurchasseDate>05/10/2008 13:37</LatestPurchasseDate>
    <SalesComment id="1">To be called back next week</SalesComment>
    <SalesComment id="2">was very interested by Mr. Smith porposal</SalesComment>
</Customer>

You will find MSDN link to study XPath syntax :
here.