Create web form from xml in asp.net mvc

Question

I am assigned to web part of some project.There are two parts in this project, window and web.In window part,User can create their own customized template like visual studio IDE,you can addform and other controls.And then,we save this template with data in xml file.My duty isto read from this xml file and create webform. For web part,just showing information that createdfrom window part. our xml file format is like below.For web part,we developed in c#.net with asp.net mvc.

<Object type="System.Windows.Forms.Form">
  <Object type="System.Windows.Forms.Label">
    <Property name="Name">lblCity</Property>
    <Property name="Text">City</Property>
  </Object>
  <Object type="System.Windows.Forms.TextBox">
    <Property name="Name">txtCity</Property>
    <Property name="Text">England</Property>
  </Object>
  <Object type="System.Windows.Forms.Label">
    <Property name="Name">lblNRIC</Property>
    <Property name="Text">NRIC</Property>
  </Object>
  <Object type="System.Windows.Forms.TextBox">
    <Property name="Name">txtNRIC</Property>
    <Property name="Text">ABC01234</Property>
  </Object>
  <Object type="System.Windows.Forms.RadioButton">    
    <Property name="Name">RadioButton1</Property>    
    <Property name="Text">OptionA</Property>    
  </Object>  
  <Object type="System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox">
    <Property name="Name">CheckBox1</Property>
    <Property name="Text">Yes</Property>
  </Object> 
  <Object type="System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox">
    <Property name="Name">CheckBox2</Property>
    <Property name="Text">No</Property>
  </Object>
  <SampleDataSet>
    <SampleTable>
      <TableName>Sample1</TableName>
      <ProductName>ABC</ProductName>
      <Price>100</Price>
      <Qty>10</Qty>
      <Amount>1000</Amount>
    </SampleTable>
    <SampleTable>
      <TableName>Sample2</TableName>
      <ProductName>DEF</ProductName>
      <Price>200</Price>
      <Qty>20</Qty>
      <Amount>4000</Amount>
    </SampleTable>
    <SampleTable>
      <TableName>Sample3</TableName>
      <ProductName>GHK</ProductName>
      <Price>300</Price>
      <Qty>30</Qty>
      <Amount>9000</Amount>
    </SampleTable>
  </SampleDataSet>
  </Object>

We know it should not be create web form like window part,but,we really need it. So,how i solve my problem?can i use xml serilization? please give me right ways with some examples.

Regards

Han

Victor Haydin · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-03 08:21:27Z

5

You could use XSLT to transform this XML to XHTML. Also, you could inherit your own XMLBasedFormResult from MVC ActionResult class and generate form HTML at ExecuteResult method using C# (e.g. with LinqToXML).

answered Jan 3, 2011 at 8:21

Victor Haydin

3,5582 gold badges28 silver badges41 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Steve Han Over a year ago

can you give me some examples,please.really thanks for your answer.i want to try it.

Mahesh · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-03 08:21:48Z

0

Well, don't you think you will really end up duplicating what visual studio does..?

I would suggest you use something like WPF, which can be shown in the browser as well as in the Windows app. I am telling from experience this idea of parsing xml and generating UI is not very good..it is almost like writing a jsp/asp engine.

Also i noticed that the xml you have there has no formatting information, location on screen, color, style, font etc..

How do you intend on populating text boxes, dropdown lists, menus etc..?

answered Jan 3, 2011 at 8:21

Mahesh

1,7131 gold badge14 silver badges18 bronze badges

4 Comments

Steve Han Over a year ago

To tell you the truth,the whole part of web is developed in asp.net mvc.mine is one form of this.so,we can't change to wpf. thanks for your answer.

Mahesh Over a year ago

Hmm.. you will still need some layout details about how you want those lables, text boxes formatted, in a table, in a div etc...also it..you will also need to map windows controls to html controls, so some advanced windows controls might be difficult to model in an html page..it would make more sense to have a meta model, which is not specific to windows platform..it should be more like html..in fact I think it may be easier to create a windows form UI from an html page then from create a web from a meta model based on the windows forms controls.. :D

Steve Han Over a year ago

yes,i also confuse about this case.i think it will be ok if i can show only data,no need to create some controls such as dropdown list,menu and button,because web part is only for viewing.i don't have any idea how to solve :( regards

Mahesh Over a year ago

It is view only, then there should not be much of a problem..which also means that you can convert all editable things like textboxes to labels...disable all checkboxes and radiobuttons(or display text box with yes no)... You can use xslt, but I have found that hard to learn..it might be overkill in your case..you can just parse the xml file.and display each element in a div one after the other..do you have any control over the process that generates these files..then may be you can put some logic there to make your work easier..

Arxisos · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-03 09:17:39Z

As mace said XSLT is a good solution.

This is the xls stylesheet:

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

<!-- Template for <Object type="System.Windows.Forms.Form -->
<xsl:template match="*[@type = 'System.Windows.Forms.Form']">
    <!-- Here's the html's form tag -->
    <form>
        <fieldset>
            <xsl:apply-templates />
        </fieldset>
    </form>
</xsl:template>

<!-- Template for <Object type="System.Windows.Forms.Label -->
<xsl:template match="*[@type = 'System.Windows.Forms.Label']">
    <!-- Here's the html's label tag -->
    <label><xsl:value-of select="." /></label>  
</xsl:template>

<!-- Template for <Object type="System.Windows.Forms.TextBox -->
<xsl:template match="*[@type = 'System.Windows.Forms.TextBox']">
    <!-- Create the html's input tag -->
    <xsl:element name="input">
        <!-- And set the attributes -->
        <xsl:attribute name="name">
            <xsl:value-of select="./Property[@name ='Name']" />
        </xsl:attribute>
        <xsl:attribute name="type">text</xsl:attribute>
        <xsl:attribute name="value">
            <xsl:value-of select="./Property[@name ='Text']" />
        </xsl:attribute>
    </xsl:element>
</xsl:template>

<!-- Add here templates for RadioButton, Checkbox ... -->

</xsl:stylesheet>

You can read this Tutorial to get basic skills of xls.

You can run this xsl transformation now in C#:

//load the Xml doc
XPathDocument myXPathDoc = new XPathDocument(sXmlPath) ;

XslTransform myXslTrans = new XslTransform() ;

//load the Xsl 
myXslTrans.Load(sXslPath) ;

//create the output stream
XmlTextWriter myWriter = new XmlTextWriter
                ("result.html", null);

//do the actual transform of Xml
myXslTrans.Transform(myXPathDoc,null, myWriter);        

myWriter.Close() ;

You have to modify that for your scenario. Look at the MSDN for information about the XslTransform-class etc.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Create web form from xml in asp.net mvc

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related