Populate Bind DropDownList From XML File In Asp.Net

This Example explains how to Populate Or Bind DropDownList With XML File Data In Asp.Net In 3/n Tier Architecture Using C# And VB.

Place one DropdownList on the page.

<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" 

                  runat="server" 

                  onselectedindexchanged

  ="DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged">

XML Data Can be in various formats, i'll use 3 different ones shown below.


Sample 1.

---

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

   2:  <Employees>

   3:    <Detail>

   4:      <ID>1</ID>

   5:      <Name>Csharp</Name>

   6:    </Detail>

   7:    <Detail>

   8:      <ID>2</ID>

   9:      <Name>AspNet</Name>

  10:    </Detail>

  11:    <Detail>

  12:      <ID>3</ID>

  13:      <Name>Articles</Name>

  14:    </Detail>

  15:  </Employees>

Another format can be

---

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

   2:  <Employees>

   3:    <Detail ID="1" Name="Csharp"></Detail>

   4:    <Detail ID="2" Name="AspNet"></Detail>

   5:    <Detail ID="3" Name="Articles"></Detail>

   6:  </Employees>

Writing following code in Page_Load event is enough to bind dropdownlist from these types of XML data.

C#

---

using System.Data;
using System.Xml;
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
        DataSet dsXml = new DataSet();
        dsXml.ReadXml(Server.MapPath("~/XMLFile2.xml"));
        DropDownList1.DataSource = dsXml;
        DropDownList1.DataTextField = "Name";
        DropDownList1.DataValueField = "ID";
        DropDownList1.DataBind();
        DropDownList1.AutoPostBack = true;
}

VB.NET

---

Protected Sub Page_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
 Dim dsXml As New DataSet()
 dsXml.ReadXml(Server.MapPath("~/XMLFile2.xml"))
 DropDownList1.DataSource = dsXml
 DropDownList1.DataTextField = "Name"
 DropDownList1.DataValueField = "ID"
 DropDownList1.DataBind()
 DropDownList1.AutoPostBack = True
End Sub

If XML format is mix of above two.

---

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

   2:  <Details>

   3:    <Name ID="1">Amit</Name>

   4:    <Name ID="2">Jain</Name>

   5:    <Name ID="3">Csharp</Name>

   6:    <Name ID="4">AspNet</Name>

   7:    <Name ID="5">Articles</Name>

   8:  </Details>

We need to loop through nodes to fine value of ID attribute.

C#

---

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (!IsPostBack)
        {
            XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
            doc.Load(Server.MapPath("~/XMLFile.xml"));
            XmlNodeList list = doc.GetElementsByTagName("Name");
            foreach (XmlNode node in list)
            {
                ListItem lItem = new ListItem(node.InnerText, node.Attributes["ID"].Value);
                DropDownList1.Items.Add(lItem);
            }
            DropDownList1.Items.Insert(0, "--Select--");
            DropDownList1.SelectedIndex = 0;
            DropDownList1.AutoPostBack = true;
        }
    }

VB

---

Protected Sub Page_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
 If Not IsPostBack Then
  Dim doc As New XmlDocument()
  doc.Load(Server.MapPath("~/XMLFile.xml"))
  Dim list As XmlNodeList = doc.GetElementsByTagName("Name")
  For Each node As XmlNode In list
   Dim lItem As New ListItem(node.InnerText, node.Attributes("ID").Value)
   DropDownList1.Items.Add(lItem)
  Next
  DropDownList1.Items.Insert(0, "--Select--")
  DropDownList1.SelectedIndex = 0
  DropDownList1.AutoPostBack = True
 End If
End Sub

To Bind DropDownList in 3 tier architecture environment, add to new class files in App_Code folder of application and name them DataLayer.cs and BusinessLayer.cs

Write Following code in these class respectively.

Data Access Layer (DAL)

---

using System.Web;
using System.Xml;
public class DataLayer
{
 public DataLayer()
 {
 }
    public XmlDocument GetXmlData()
    {
        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
        doc.Load(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/XMLFile.xml"));
        return doc;
    }
}

Business Access Layer (BAL)

---

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Xml;
public class BusinessLayer
{
 public BusinessLayer()
 {
    }
    public ListItemCollection BindDropDownList()
    {
        ListItemCollection ddlItems = new ListItemCollection();
        DataLayer objDAL = new DataLayer();
        XmlNodeList list = objDAL.GetXmlData().GetElementsByTagName("Name");
        foreach (XmlNode node in list)
        {
           ListItem item = new ListItem(node.InnerText, node.Attributes["ID"].Value);
           ddlItems.Add(item);
            
        }
        return ddlItems;
    }
}

Write code in Page_Load event of aspx page (Presentation Layer)

---

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (!IsPostBack)
        {
            BusinessLayer objBAL = new BusinessLayer();
            DropDownList1.DataSource = objBAL.BindDropDownList();
            DropDownList1.DataBind();
            DropDownList1.Items.Insert(0, "--Select--");
            DropDownList1.SelectedIndex = 0;
            DropDownList1.AutoPostBack = true;
        }
    }

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