C# Cookbook

17.9. Tearing Apart an XML Document

Problem

You have an XML document that needs to be broken apart into its constituent parts. Each part can then be sent to a different destination (possibly a web service) to be processed individually. This solution is useful when you have a large document, such as an invoice, in XML form. For example, with an invoice, you would want to tear off the billing information and send this to accounting while sending the shipping information to shipping, and then send the invoice items to fulfillment to be processed.

Solution

In order to separate the invoice items, we will load an XmlDocument with the invoice XML from the Invoice.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <Invoice invoiceDate='2003-10-05' invoiceNumber='INV-01'> <shipInfo> <name>Beerly Standing</name> <attn>Receiving</attn> <street>47 South Street</street> <city>Intox</city> <state>NH</state> </shipInfo> <billInfo> <name>Beerly Standing</name> <attn>Accounting</attn> <street>98 North Street</street> <city>Intox</city> <state>NH</state> </billInfo> <Items> <item partNum="98745"> <productName>Brown Eyed Stout</productName> <quantity>12</quantity> <price>23.99</price> <shipDate>2003-12-20</shipDate> </item> <item partNum="34987"> <productName>Diamond Pearl Lager</productName> <quantity>22</quantity> <price>35.98</price> <shipDate>2003-12-20</shipDate> </item> <item partNum="AK254"> <productName>Job Site Ale</productName> <quantity>50</quantity> <price>12.56</price> <shipDate>2003-11-12</shipDate> ...