Convert an XML file to HTML file using C#

Convert an XML file to HTML file using XSLT

Data is best stored in XML format, but the presentations are better in HTML. Here is a case where the following data in a XML file needs to be converted to a HTML file

Here is the XML File for conversion

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"? >

< !-- Sample File For Dot Net Tips & Tricks-- >

< !-- http://dotnetdud.blogspot.com -- >

< invoice InvNo="DND1232" InvDate="3-Oct-2008" >

< customer >

< custID >CID134< /custID >

< custName >Allirajan Ramachandran< /custName >

< /customer >

< items >

< item >

< MovieID >F123455< /MovieID >

< MovieName >Happy Days< /MovieName >

< RentedDate >3-Oct-2008< /RentedDate >

< ReturnDate >5-Oct-2008< /ReturnDate >

< /item >

< item >

< MovieID >F123462< /MovieID >

< MovieName >Lord Of Rings< /MovieName >

< RentedDate >3-Oct-2008< /RentedDate >

< ReturnDate >5-Oct-2008< /ReturnDate >

< /item >

< item >

< MovieID >F123232< /MovieID >

< MovieName >Drona< /MovieName >

< RentedDate >1-Oct-2008< /RentedDate >

< ReturnDate >3-Oct-2008< /ReturnDate >

< /item >

< /items >

< /invoice >

The XML file should be transformed to HTML using XSLT. This needs a stylesheet (XSL) defining what needs to be transformed and how it needs to be done.

Here is a sample stylesheet

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"? >

< !-- Om Ganeshaya Namaha-- >

< !-- Om Satguru Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadike-- >

< !-- Om Varahi Namaha-- >

< !-- Om Saravana Bhava-- >

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

xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" exclude-result-prefixes="msxsl"

xmlns:vbadud="http://vbadud.in"

>

< msxsl:script implements-prefix="vbadud" language ="C#" >

< ![CDATA[

public string Defaulted(String RetDate)

{

if (DateTime.Parse(RetDate) < DateTime.Now)

{

return "Defaulted";

}

else

{

return "--";

}

}

public string Today()

{

return DateTime.Now.ToString();

}

]] >

< /msxsl:script >

< xsl:output method="html" indent="yes"/ >

< xsl:template match="invoice" >

< h1 >DND Video Library - Invoice< /h1 >

< p >

Invoice Date : =

< xsl:value-of select ="vbadud:Today()"/ >

< /p >

< p >

Invoice No : =

< xsl:value-of select ="@InvNo"/ >

< /p >

< xsl:apply-templates/ >

< /xsl:template >

< xsl:template match ="customer" >

=========== Customer Information =========

< br/ >

Customer ID :=

< xsl:value-of select ="custID"/ >

< br/ >

Customer Name :=

< xsl:value-of select ="custName"/ >

< br/ >

============================================

< br/ >

< xsl:apply-templates/ >

< /xsl:template >

< xsl:template match ="items" >

< table >

< th >Movie ID< /th >

< th >Movie Name< /th >

< th >Rented Date< /th >

< th >Return Date< /th >

< th >Defaulted< /th >

< xsl:apply-templates/ >

< /table >

< /xsl:template >

< xsl:template match ="item" >

< tr >

< td >< xsl:value-of select ="MovieID"/ > < /td >

< td >

< xsl:value-of select ="MovieName"/ >

< /td >

< td >

< xsl:value-of select ="RentedDate"/ >

< /td >

< td >

< xsl:value-of select ="ReturnDate"/ >

< /td >

< td >

< xsl:value-of select ="vbadud:Defaulted(ReturnDate)"/ >

< /td >

< /tr >

< /xsl:template >

< /xsl:stylesheet >

The above stylesheet uses C# scripting to identify defaulters

The following C# code will transform (convert) the XML to HTML

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.IO;

using System.Xml;

using System.Xml.XPath;

using System.Xml.Xsl;

public void transform_Xml2Html()

{

XslCompiledTransform XSLT = new XslCompiledTransform();

XsltSettings settings = new XsltSettings();

settings.EnableScript = true ;

XSLT.Load(@"c:\shasurdata\forblogger\VideoLibXSLTFile.xslt", settings, new XmlUrlResolver() );

XSLT.Transform(XMLFile ,@"c:\shasurdata\forblogger\SalesInvoice.html");

}

settings.EnableScript = true enables scripting in XSL file. The code uses XslCompiledTransform methods to convert the XML files

Simple isn’t it. Here you have the output:

HTML Source

< h1 xmlns:vbadud="http://vbadud.in" >DND Video Library - Invoice< /h1 >

< p xmlns:vbadud="http://vbadud.in" >

Invoice Date : =

04-10-2008 20:37:02< /p >

< p xmlns:vbadud="http://vbadud.in" >

Invoice No : =

DND1232< /p >

=========== Customer Information =========

< br xmlns:vbadud="http://vbadud.in" >

Customer ID :=

CID134< br xmlns:vbadud="http://vbadud.in" >

Customer Name :=

Allirajan Ramachandran< br xmlns:vbadud="http://vbadud.in" >

============================================

< br xmlns:vbadud="http://vbadud.in" >

CID134

Allirajan Ramachandran

< table xmlns:vbadud="http://vbadud.in" >

< th >Movie ID< /th >

< th >Movie Name< /th >

< th >Rented Date< /th >

< th >Return Date< /th >

< th >Defaulted< /th >

< tr >

< td >F123455< /td >

< td >Happy Days< /td >

< td >3-Oct-2008< /td >

< td >5-Oct-2008< /td >

< td >--< /td >

< /tr >

< tr >

< td >F123462< /td >

< td >Lord Of Rings< /td >

< td >3-Oct-2008< /td >

< td >5-Oct-2008< /td >

< td >--< /td >

< /tr >

< tr >

< td >F123232< /td >

< td >Drona< /td >

< td >1-Oct-2008< /td >

< td >3-Oct-2008< /td >

< td >Defaulted< /td >

< /tr >

< /table >

And here is the HTML output