Adding XmlNode to Silverlight

Of the many types of data I work with, XML shows up all the time.  However, when working in Silverlight, your XML options are dramatically limited.  For example, for some reason Microsoft totally forgot to add a simple XmlNode class.  Microsoft seems to think that using LINQ for XML will solve all our XML problems.  Well, most of the stuff that I do on a daily basis has nothing to do with extensive querying XML.  I just need something simple to pull quick data.  Not only that, but LINQ for XML is in the System.Xml.Linq assembly, which is not a native Silverlight assembly.  I’m not going to bloat my XAP file for a single dependency.

So, in my internal build of Themelia for Silverlight, you will find the Themelia.Xml.XmlNode class.  I use this all over the build entire XML trees and to search the same tree for elements I need.  All this in one small discrete class that doesn’t require you to bloat your XAP file.  Here’s a sample of how to use my XmlNode class:

XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(@"<s:Envelope xmlns:s=""http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"">
    <s:Body>
    <s:Fault>
      <faultcode>s:Client</faultcode>
      <faultstring xml:lang=""en-US"">This is the fault reason.</faultstring>
      <detail>
        <FaultDetail xmlns=""http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/Sample.Service"" xmlns:i=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"">
          <Reason>This is the fault reason.</Reason>
          <Source>GetPersonData</Source>
        </FaultDetail>
      </detail>
    </s:Fault>
    </s:Body>
    </s:Envelope>"));
XmlNode node = new XmlNode(reader);
XmlNode faultDetailNode = node.FindDescendant("faultDetail");
stackpanel01.Children.Add(new TextBlock
{
    Text = faultDetailNode.FirstChild.TextContent
});
stackpanel01.Children.Add(new TextBlock
{
    Text = faultDetailNode.AttributeDictionary["xmlns"]
});
stackpanel01.Children.Add(new TextBlock
{
    Text = faultDetailNode.AttributeDictionary["xmlns:i"]
});

It does a few more things that you can see by looking at the source for it, but this is essentially all I need in for XML processing on most days.  Here’s the source for XmlNode.cs:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Xml;
//+
namespace Themelia.Xml
{
    public class XmlNode
    {
        //- @Name -//
        public String Name { get; set; }

        //- @TextContent -//
        public String TextContent { get; set; }

        //- @Children -//
        public List<XmlNode> NodeList { get; set; }

        //- @AttributeMap -//
        public Dictionary<String, String> AttributeDictionary { get; set; }

        //- @FirstChild -//
        public XmlNode FirstChild
        {
            get
            {
                if (NodeList.Count > 0)
                {
                    return NodeList[0];
                }
                //+
                return null;
            }
        }

        //+
        //- @Ctor -//
        private XmlNode()
        {
            NodeList = new List<XmlNode>();
            AttributeDictionary = new Dictionary<String, String>();
        }
        public XmlNode(XmlReader xmlReader)
            : this()
        {
            Initialize(xmlReader);
        }
        public XmlNode(Stream xmlStream)
            : this(XmlReader.Create(xmlStream))
        {
        }
        public XmlNode(String name)
            : this()
        {
            Name = name;
        }

        //- $Initialize -//
        private void Initialize(XmlReader reader)
        {
            reader.Read();
            this.Name = reader.Name;
            //+ attribute
            reader.MoveToElement();
            if (reader.HasAttributes)
            {
                reader.MoveToFirstAttribute();
                AttributeDictionary.Add(reader.Name, reader.Value);
                while (reader.MoveToNextAttribute())
                {
                    AttributeDictionary.Add(reader.Name, reader.Value);
                }
            }
            //+ node
            while (reader.Read())
            {
                if (reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element)
                {
                    NodeList.Add(new XmlNode(reader.ReadSubtree()));
                }
                else if (reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Text)
                {
                    TextContent = reader.ReadContentAsString();
                }
            }
        }

        //- @FindDescendant -//
        public XmlNode FindDescendant(String name)
        {
            XmlNode foundNode = NodeList.FirstOrDefault(p => p.Name.Equals(name, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));
            if (foundNode != null)
            {
                return foundNode;
            }
            foreach (XmlNode node in NodeList)
            {
                foundNode = node.FindDescendant(name);
                if (foundNode != null)
                {
                    return foundNode;
                }
            }
            //+
            return foundNode;
        }

        //- @FindDescendantList -//
        public List<XmlNode> FindDescendantList(String name)
        {
            List<XmlNode> nodeList = new List<XmlNode>();
            XmlNode foundNode = NodeList.FirstOrDefault(p => p.Name.Equals(name, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));
            if (foundNode != null)
            {
                nodeList.Add(foundNode);
                foundNode = null;
            }
            foreach (XmlNode node in NodeList)
            {
                foundNode = node.FindDescendant(name);
                if (foundNode != null)
                {
                    nodeList.Add(foundNode);
                    foundNode = null;
                }
            }
            //+
            return nodeList;
        }

        //- @GetChildDictionary -//
        public Dictionary<String, String> GetChildDictionary()
        {
            Dictionary<String, String> map = new Dictionary<String, String>();
            foreach (XmlNode node in NodeList)
            {
                if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(node.TextContent))
                {
                    map.Add(node.Name, node.TextContent);
                }
            }
            //+
            return map;
        }
    }
}

Yeah, there’s more it could probably do and I’ll probably add more to it in the future, but this little class has worked in all my XML scenarios so far.