All posts by : Dan Wahlin XML

1 of 30 | XSLT 2.0, XPath 2.0, XQuery and WSDL Support in XMLSpy 2007 - I've always been a fan of Altova's XMLSpy and have used it since it was first released.  Their release of XMLSpy 2007 doesn't disappoint as it adds support for several things that are of particular interest to me such as XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0, XQuery and enhanced WSDL editing.  It of course adds many more features which you can learn about at http://www.altova.com/products/xmlspy/xml_editor.html.The intergrated XQuery editor simplifies writing queries since it offers intellisense, access to different XQuery language keywords, a debugger, plus more.  Here's an example some of the intellisense you get while working with XQuery queries: The XSLT 2.0 ed......

2 of 30 | Video: Edit XML Data with the XmlDocument Class - In this video tutorial I walk through how to use XPath statements to parse an RSS feed and display results using the XmlDocument class  Click the link below to view the video.  View Video...

3 of 30 | Video: Parsing XML with the XmlDocument Class - In this video tutorial I walk through the fundamentals of using the XmlDocument class in .NET to parse an RSS feed and display results.  Click the link below to view the video.  Parsing XML with the XmlDocument Class...

4 of 30 | Video: Parsing XML with the XmlDocument Class - Part I - In this video tutorial I walk through the fundamentals of using the XmlDocument class in .NET to parse an RSS feed and display results.  Click the link below to view the video.  Parsing XML with the XmlDocument Class...

5 of 30 | .NET Distributed Application Development - I'm teaching Microsoft's .NET Distributed Application Development course this week in Phoenix and wanted to get some sample code I put together posted for everyone that is attending (and anyone else that is interested).  The code demonstrates asynchronous Web Services calls, MSMQ fundamentals, remoting through code and remoting through configuration files, using delegates with remoting, WSE 3 features, plus more.  .NET Distributed Application Development Code...

6 of 30 | Creating an ASP.NET RSS Blog Roller - We needed an RSS blog roller for http://www.interfacett.com so we could show various employee blogs.  While there are several out there for .NET we wanted something that we could build on and customize so I put together a quick class named RssBlogRoller that would read an array of blog URLs, grab a specific number of items and then sort them based upon the <pubDate> element.  It was a fun little exercise that will be useful in classes as well since it demonstrates generics, XmlReaders (and sub readers) and the ASP.NET ObjectDataSource.The code for the RssBlogRoller is shown below.  I've refactored it several times now and while it's not perfect, it gets the job ......

7 of 30 | New XML Features in .NET Version 2 - Version 1.1 of the .NET framework supports today’s mainstream XML technologies including DTDs, XML Schema, XSLT, XPath, SOAP 1.1, DOM Level 2, and XML namespaces. While version 2 of the framework continues to support these technologies (and newer versions where appropriate), it also adds significantly more perfomant XSLT transformations, enhanced XmlReader and XmlWriter APIs, plus a more powerful XPathNavigator class (to name a few of the enhancements). I've put together some code that shows how to leverage several of the new XML APIs found in .NET version 2.  You'll find the code available at the following URL: http://www.xmlforasp.net/CodeSection.aspx?csID=107  ...

8 of 30 | New XML Features in .NET Version 2 - Version 1.1 of the .NET framework supports todays mainstream XML technologies including DTDs, XML Schema, XSLT, XPath, SOAP 1.1, DOM Level 2, and XML namespaces. While version 2 of the framework continues to support these technologies (and newer versions where appropriate), it also adds significantly more perfomant XSLT transformations, enhanced XmlReader and XmlWriter APIs, plus a more powerful XPathNavigator class (to name a few of the enhancements). I`ve put together some code that shows how to leverage several of the new XML APIs found in .NET version 2.  You`ll find the code available at the following URL: http://www.xmlforasp.net/CodeSection.aspxcsID=107  ...

9 of 30 | Work with RSS Feeds using the System.Xml Assembly - .NET version 2.0 adds many enhancements to the System.Xml namespace and its related classes. This sample code demonstrates how several of these enhancements can be used to consume RSS feeds for display on ASP.NET Websites in an efficient and scalable manner. Different techniques are shown including caching feeds, randomizing feeds, plus more using the XmlReader and XPathNavigator classes. Other alternatives such as the DataSet and XmlDataSource control are also shown. http://www.xmlforasp.net/CodeSection.aspx?csID=118    ...

10 of 30 | Work with RSS Feeds using the System.Xml Assembly - .NET version 2.0 adds many enhancements to the System.Xml namespace and its related classes. This sample code demonstrates how several of these enhancements can be used to consume RSS feeds for display on ASP.NET Websites in an efficient and scalable manner. Different techniques are shown including caching feeds, randomizing feeds, plus more using the XmlReader and XPathNavigator classes. Other alternatives such as the DataSet and XmlDataSource control are also shown. http://www.xmlforasp.net/CodeSection.aspx?csID=118    ...

11 of 30 | Customer Viewer Atlas Demo - With the release of the Atlas technology preview developers have a new way to emulate AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) programming concepts while using familiar ASP.NET server control style programming. Atlas allows Web applications to make asynchronous calls to back-end systems from multiple browsers (Netscape, IE, Firefox, Safari, etc.) without postbacks. This provides an enhanced user interface for end users that is more friendly, more responsive and more efficient. This application demonstrates different Atlas features including Atlas server controls with autocomplete enabled, JavaScript integration, asynchronous calls to multiple Web Services and Virtual Earth maps. The sample al......

12 of 30 | Customer Viewer Atlas Demo - With the release of the Atlas technology preview developers have a new way to emulate AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) programming concepts while using familiar ASP.NET server control style programming. Atlas allows Web applications to make asynchronous calls to back-end systems from multiple browsers (Netscape, IE, Firefox, Safari, etc.) without postbacks. This provides an enhanced user interface for end users that is more friendly, more responsive and more efficient. This application demonstrates different Atlas features including Atlas server controls with autocomplete enabled, JavaScript integration, asynchronous calls to multiple Web Services and Virtual Earth maps. The sample al......

13 of 30 | Free Web Seminars Presented by Dan Wahlin in June and July - Microsoft .NET MVP Dan Wahlin will be presenting several free Web Seminars covering a variety of topics from new .NET version 2 features to emulating master pages Website templates in .NET version 1.1. Sign-up for free using the links below: Extending the DataGrid - June 22nd New XML Features in .NET Version 2 - June 29th Master Pages in ASP.NET 1.1? - July 13th ...

14 of 30 | Free Web Seminars Presented by Dan Wahlin in June and July - Microsoft .NET MVP Dan Wahlin will be presenting several free Web Seminars covering a variety of topics from new .NET version 2 features to emulating master pages Website templates in .NET version 1.1. Sign-up for free using the links below: Extending the DataGrid - June 22nd New XML Features in .NET Version 2 - June 29th Master Pages in ASP.NET 1.1 - July 13th ...

15 of 30 | Online Video - Using the XmlTextReader Class - The next video tutorial in the XML APIs video tutorial series is now available for viewing at the XML for ASP.NET Developers Website.  It's titled "Using the XmlTextReader Class" and can be found at the following URL: http://www.xmlforasp.net/CodeSection.aspx?csID=114 The XmlTextReader class provides a fast, forward-only API for parsing XML documents. In this video tutorial you'll see how to use the XmlTextReader to parse RSS feeds, combine it with the XmlTextWriter class and how it can be used to generate different XML formats such as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). ...

16 of 30 | Online Video - Using the XmlTextReader Class - The next video tutorial in the XML APIs video tutorial series is now available for viewing at the XML for ASP.NET Developers Website.  It`s titled "Using the XmlTextReader Class" and can be found at the following URL: http://www.xmlforasp.net/CodeSection.aspxcsID=114 The XmlTextReader class provides a fast, forward-only API for parsing XML documents. In this video tutorial you`ll see how to use the XmlTextReader to parse RSS feeds, combine it with the XmlTextWriter class and how it can be used to generate different XML formats such as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). ...

17 of 30 | Online Video - Using the XmlDocument Class - I spent a few hours yesterday putting together the first segment in a new online video series that will demonstrate how to use different XML parsing APIs built-into the .NET framework including the XmlDocument, XmlTextReader/XmlTextWriter, XPathNavigator and XmlSerializer classes.  The first one titled "Using the XmlDocument Class" can be found here: http://www.xmlforasp.net/CodeSection.aspx?csID=113 This video segment demonstrates some XmlDocument class fundamentals including how the Document Object Model (DOM) works, parsing RSS feeds, filtering with XPath, and editing XML....

18 of 30 | Online Video - Using the XmlDocument Class - I spent a few hours yesterday putting together the first segment in a new online video series that will demonstrate how to use different XML parsing APIs built-into the .NET framework including the XmlDocument, XmlTextReader/XmlTextWriter, XPathNavigator and XmlSerializer classes.  The first one titled "Using the XmlDocument Class" can be found here: http://www.xmlforasp.net/CodeSection.aspxcsID=113 This video segment demonstrates some XmlDocument class fundamentals including how the Document Object Model (DOM) works, parsing RSS feeds, filtering with XPath, and editing XML....

19 of 30 | Speaking at the Plano .NET User Group January 5th - I'll be speaking at the Plano, Texas .NET User Group meeting January 5th on the new XML features in .NET V2 (Whidbey).  The talk will cover why you'd ever want to use XML, new XML classes, new performance enhancements, cool tricks you can do with XML, how to integrate XML easily into ASP.NET V2 Web Forms, plus more.  Drop by and say "hi" if you're in the area. http://pdnug.net/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=24...

20 of 30 | Speaking at the Plano .NET User Group January 5th - I`ll be speaking at the Plano, Texas .NET User Group meeting January 5th on the new XML features in .NET V2 (Whidbey).  The talk will cover why you`d ever want to use XML, new XML classes, new performance enhancements, cool tricks you can do with XML, how to integrate XML easily into ASP.NET V2 Web Forms, plus more.  Drop by and say "hi" if you`re in the area. http://pdnug.net/DesktopDefault.aspxtabid=24...

21 of 30 | Combine RSS Feeds and Display Random Items - I added a new code sample to the XML for ASP.NET Developers Website (http://www.xmlforasp.net) that deals with RSS feeds.  Here's more information about it: Combine RSS Feeds and Display Random Items This code sample demonstrates how multiple RSS feeds can be combined, parsed, and displayed using the XmlTextReader and XmlTextWriter classes in the .NET framework. It can display all items found in one or more RSS feeds or display only a few items in a random manner.  Ben Miller (Microsoft MVP Lead for ASP.NET, IIS, and Web Services) and I talked a little about doing this last night and this sample was put together as a result. The code parses the RSS feeds using the XmlTextRead......

22 of 30 | Combine RSS Feeds and Display Random Items - I added a new code sample to the XML for ASP.NET Developers Website (http://www.xmlforasp.net) that deals with RSS feeds.  Here's more information about it: Combine RSS Feeds and Display Random Items This code sample demonstrates how multiple RSS feeds can be combined, parsed, and displayed using the XmlTextReader and XmlTextWriter classes in the .NET framework. It can display all items found in one or more RSS feeds or display only a few items in a random manner.  Ben Miller (Microsoft MVP Lead for ASP.NET, IIS, and Web Services) and I talked a little about doing this last night and this sample was put together as a result. The code parses the RSS feeds using the XmlTextRead......

23 of 30 | XML Spy 2005 Out - I’ve been a fan of XML Spy for years due to its excellent support for editing, schemas, DTDs, XSLT debugging, etc.  A few days ago XML Spy 2005 came out and I was happy to see it had several new features in it (see a complete feature matrix here:  http://www.xmlspy.com/matrix_entsuite.html) that further enhance productivity.   Here’s a short list of some of the new features: ·         Support for the latest version of the XSLT 2.0/Xpath 2.0. ·         XQuery 1.0 support. ·         The StyleVision product (included in the enterprise bundle…can generate ......

24 of 30 | XML Spy 2005 Out - Ive been a fan of XML Spy for years due to its excellent support for editing, schemas, DTDs, XSLT debugging, etc.  A few days ago XML Spy 2005 came out and I was happy to see it had several new features in it (see a complete feature matrix here:  http://www.xmlspy.com/matrix_entsuite.html) that further enhance productivity.   Heres a short list of some of the new features:          Support for the latest version of the XSLT 2.0/Xpath 2.0.          XQuery 1.0 support.          The StyleVision product (included in the enterprise bundlecan generate HTML, RTF, or PDF from a single XML document) generates XSLT 2.0 compliant stylesheets if desired.  You can switch between XSLT 1.0 and 2.0 styles......

25 of 30 | XML Changes from Beta 1 to Beta 2 - Microsoft’s Dare Obasanjo has put together a great list of XML related changes between .NET V2 Beta 1 and Beta 2 at http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=f2d229e4-a0f3-4660-aeda-0806c4ace79d.  Some of the highlights include the merging of the XPathEditableNavigator into the XPathNavigator (which was expected), and the removal of XQuery support (although SQL Server 2005 will still have some XQuery support to work with native XML types).  Although removal of XQuery support is a bummer given all of the great things you can do with it, I personally think it’s a good move given the current status of the XQuery spec and the lengthy process it’s going t......

26 of 30 | XML Changes from Beta 1 to Beta 2 - Microsoft’s Dare Obasanjo has put together a great list of XML related changes between .NET V2 Beta 1 and Beta 2 at http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=f2d229e4-a0f3-4660-aeda-0806c4ace79d.  Some of the highlights include the merging of the XPathEditableNavigator into the XPathNavigator (which was expected), and the removal of XQuery support (although SQL Server 2005 will still have some XQuery support to work with native XML types).  Although removal of XQuery support is a bummer given all of the great things you can do with it, I personally think it’s a good move given the current status of the XQuery spec and the lengthy process it’s going through to get recommended st......

27 of 30 | Better Late Than Never..... -  I’ve had several people ask why I don’t have a blog out there yet. My standard response has always been that I just don’t have enough time (which is true most days) between running my consulting business, training, spending time with my wife and kids, running the http://www.xmlforasp.net website, writing, etc., etc..  However, after reading more and more blogs from a variety of people I’ve come to the conclusion that creating a blog is a great way to help out others (when the blog is technology related….sorry but I don’t have much to offer in the area of self-help J) plus is a great way to track different things that have been worked on.   I don’t know how many times I......

28 of 30 | Better Late Than Never..... -  Ive had several people ask why I dont have a blog out there yet. My standard response has always been that I just dont have enough time (which is true most days) between running my consulting business, training, spending time with my wife and kids, running the http://www.xmlforasp.net website, writing, etc., etc..  However, after reading more and more blogs from a variety of people Ive come to the conclusion that creating a blog is a great way to help out others (when the blog is technology related.sorry but I dont have much to offer in the area of self-help J) plus is a great way to track different things that have been worked on.   I dont know how many times Ive figured out a solution t......

29 of 30 | Combining the XmlTextReader and XmlTextWriter Classes - Awhile back I put out a new sample at http://www.xmlforasp.net that demonstrates how to combine the XmlTextReader and XmlTextWriter classes when custom XML needs to be output.  The example shows how to create SVG maps containing flight information.  Here’s more information about it: “This code sample demonstrates how over 30 meg of XML data containing world mapping points, airport locations, and flight routes can be dynamically parsed and used to generate Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) images. Because the images are vector-based they can be zoomed in and out without affecting the image quality. The example also shows how Web Services can be integrated into SVG. Airports shown on the map can......

30 of 30 | Combining the XmlTextReader and XmlTextWriter Classes - Awhile back I put out a new sample at http://www.xmlforasp.net that demonstrates how to combine the XmlTextReader and XmlTextWriter classes when custom XML needs to be output.  The example shows how to create SVG maps containing flight information.  Here’s more information about it: “This code sample demonstrates how over 30 meg of XML data containing world mapping points, airport locations, and flight routes can be dynamically parsed and used to generate Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) images. Because the images are vector-based they can be zoomed in and out without affecting the image quality. The example also shows how Web Services can be integrated into SVG. Airport......