Vista - XML Document creation

My apologies if this has already been covered, but searching this discussion
group via google did not turn up anything helpful.

Here is my dilemma. I want to be able to create an xml document from
scratch. I do not want to create it by generating some giant blob of text
because that offends my OO sensibilities (*nose up...sniff*). Instead I would
like to generate it via the DOM. So I can do this:

$now = [System.DateTime]::Now

$x = [xml]"<report><created>$now</created><master>Master
Sample</master></report>"
$tests = $x.CreateElement("tests")
$tests.set_InnerText("Tests run for this report")
$x.report.AppendChild($tests)
$x.save("C:\Data\Active\Scripts\WPS\XMLReporter\test.xml")

and I get this as an xml file (pretend you don't see that tiny blob of
text...I was feeling lazy):

<report>
<created>11/05/2007 14:20:59</created>
<master>Master Sample</master>
<tests>Tests run for this report</tests>
</report>


Everything is perfect. The problem arises from trying to add a child node to
<tests>. When I run this code:


$now = [System.DateTime]::Now

$x = [xml]"<report><created>$now</created><master>Master
Sample</master></report>"
$tests = $x.CreateElement("tests")
$tests.set_InnerText("Tests run for this report")

$n = $x.CreateElement("test")
$n.set_InnerText("Sample Test 1")
$tests.AppendChild($n)

$x.report.AppendChild($tests)
$x.save("C:\Data\Active\Scripts\WPS\XMLReporter\test.xml")

Then I get this for the file:

<report>
<created>11/05/2007 14:24:08</created>
<master>Master Sample</master>
<tests>Tests run for this report<test>Sample Test 1</test></tests>
</report>


While I realize that this is perfectly valid from an XML perspective, it
will cause me headaches. I am trying to fight the good fight and move as much
non-database stored data as possible to XML. One of the major resistances
that I face is that raw xml files "Are too hard to read". If I could just
give them a simple INI or TXT file everything would be fine.


So in short, is there a way to get the child node to add itself in a nice
pretty fashion using the DOM rather than building the entire doc as a big
blob of text?

On Nov 5, 4:32 pm, ebgreen <ebgr...@xxxxxx> wrote:Hi Ebgreen,

I think the reason you aren't getting any answers to this thread is
that you kinda neglected to fully-form your question. I'm going to
take a stab at it nonetheless: I think you probably want to have the
<test></test> nodes on a new line, nicely indented. There is a class
in the FCL called XmlWriter which has a static method Create, which
itself takes an output path (or stream) and an XmlWriterSettings
object. This settings object denotes visual style for any output XML,
among other things. You'll notice that there is an overload for your
Save method that you call that takes an XmlWriter as a target.

However, your real problem is the text node ( "tests run for this
report" ) that is adjacent to your child <test /> nodes. AFAIK, there
are no style rules that control this kind of content, e.g. I don't
think you can programmatically force it onto a new line. I think your
easiest route is to wrap this in a node itself, e.g. <title>Tests run
for this report</title> ; you'll then end up with:

...
<master>Master Sample</master>
<tests>
<title>Tests run for this report</title>
<test>Sample Test 1</test></tests>
<test>Sample Test 2</test></tests>
<test>Sample Test 3</test></tests>
</report>

Or you could have title as an attribute of tests.

Anyway, hope this helps.

- Oisin / x0n
http://oisin.powershell.com/

Thanks a lot for the replay. Your guess at my root question is correct. Sorry
for any confusion. I will play around with the new info that you have
provided. Thanks again.

"Oisin Grehan" wrote:

"Oisin Grehan" <oising@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1194301390.275637.47890@xxxxxxAgreed. In general I would avoid mixing element content and text content
within the same element.
Or use an attribute:

....
<master>Master Sample</master>
<tests title="Tests run for this report">
<test>Sample Test 1</test>
<test>Sample Test 2</test>
<test>Sample Test 3</test>
</tests>
....

--
Keith