How do I bind xml file to dropdownlist using XML datasource?

Question

How to bind xml file to asp.net dropdownlist using xmldatasource? If I do it like below, I see empty dropdownlist.

ASP.NET

<asp:DropDownList runat="server" ID="ddlDEMO"  DataValueField="BILLAB" DataTextField="BILLAB" DataSourceID="xdsDemo">
</asp:DropDownList> 

<asp:XmlDataSource ID="xdsDemo" runat="server" DataFile="~/XML/Bills.xml" 
                        XPath="/Bills/Bill"></asp:XmlDataSource>

XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Bills>
  <Bill>
    <BILLID>1</BILLID>
    <BILLAB>ONE</BILLAB>
  </Bill>
</Bills>

Amiram Korach · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-05 22:27:30Z

It is working for attributes, not elements. This would have work if your XML looked like that:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Bills>
  <Bill BILLID="1" BILLAB="ONE">
  </Bill>
</Bills>

You can use transformation to fix it. Look here: http://kanakaiah.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/using-xslt-files-with-the-new-xmldatasource-control/

Based on the solution in that link you should write xsl like that:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:template match="Bills">
    <Bills>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="Bill"/>
    </Bills>
  </xsl:template>
  <xsl:template match="Bill">
    <Bill>
      <xsl:attribute name="BILLID">
        <xsl:value-of select="BILLID"/>
      </xsl:attribute>
      <xsl:attribute name="BILLAB">
        <xsl:value-of select="BILLAB"/>
      </xsl:attribute>
    </BILL>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Hanlet Escaño · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-05 22:36:19Z

0

I would either create a class or a structure and serialize/deserialize from/to xml to my class/struct. Here is how you serialize your xml documents:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/815813

After this I create a generic List of my class/struct and it is much easier to bind to anything and manipulate in general.

Good luck.

answered Sep 5, 2012 at 22:36

Hanlet Escaño

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1 Comment

Musicode Over a year ago

This guy definitely knows what to do :). Using this strategy now.

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