<h2>Customizable Pretty XML output with UTF-8 XML declaration</h2>
The following class definition gives a simple method to convert an input XML string into formatted output XML with the xml declaration as UTF-8. It supports all the configuration options that the [XmlWriterSettings][1] class offers.
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.IO;
namespace CJBS.Demo
{
/// <summary>
/// Supports formatting for XML in a format that is easily human-readable.
/// </summary>
public static class PrettyXmlFormatter
{
/// <summary>
/// Generates formatted UTF-8 XML for the content in the <paramref name="doc"/>
/// </summary>
/// <param name="doc">XmlDocument for which content will be returned as a formatted string</param>
/// <returns>Formatted (indented) XML string</returns>
public static string GetPrettyXml(XmlDocument doc)
{
// Configure how XML is to be formatted
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings
{
Indent = true
, IndentChars = " "
, NewLineChars = System.Environment.NewLine
, NewLineHandling = NewLineHandling.Replace
//,NewLineOnAttributes = true
//,OmitXmlDeclaration = false
};
// Use wrapper class that supports UTF-8 encoding
StringWriterWithEncoding sw = new StringWriterWithEncoding(Encoding.UTF8);
// Output formatted XML to StringWriter
using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sw, settings))
{
doc.Save(writer);
}
// Get formatted text from writer
return sw.ToString();
}
/// <summary>
/// Wrapper class around <see cref="StringWriter"/> that supports encoding.
/// Attribution:
[To see links please register here]
/// </summary>
private sealed class StringWriterWithEncoding : StringWriter
{
private readonly Encoding encoding;
/// <summary>
/// Creates a new <see cref="PrettyXmlFormatter"/> with the specified encoding
/// </summary>
/// <param name="encoding"></param>
public StringWriterWithEncoding(Encoding encoding)
{
this.encoding = encoding;
}
/// <summary>
/// Encoding to use when dealing with text
/// </summary>
public override Encoding Encoding
{
get { return encoding; }
}
}
}
}
Possibilities for further improvement:-
- An additional method `GetPrettyXml(XmlDocument doc, XmlWriterSettings settings)` could be created that allows the caller to customize the output.
- An additional method `GetPrettyXml(String rawXml)` could be added that supports parsing raw text, rather than have the client use the XmlDocument. In my case, I needed to manipulate the XML using the XmlDocument, hence I didn't add this.
Usage:
String myFormattedXml = null;
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
try
{
doc.LoadXml(myRawXmlString);
myFormattedXml = PrettyXmlFormatter.GetPrettyXml(doc);
}
catch(XmlException ex)
{
// Failed to parse XML -- use original XML as formatted XML
myFormattedXml = myRawXmlString;
}
[1]:
[To see links please register here]