Load XML in MVC Controller

Question

I am trying to load up an XML document in MVC in the "HomeController"

I want this document to load up in everything under the /Home/ directory so have my class:

public HomeController()
        {  }

And inside this I have the code that I want to connect to the XML with:

//Now set up the config xml read
        XmlDocument xmldoc = new XmlDocument();
        xmldoc.Load(HttpContext.Server.MapPath("~/Content/settings.xml"));
        XmlNodeList settings = xmldoc.SelectNodes("/settings");
        XmlNodeList defaults = xmldoc.GetElementsByTagName("default");
        foreach (XmlNode node in defaults)
        {
            string def_WebPageName = node["WebPageName "].InnerText;
        }

Structure of the XML:

<settings>
<defaults>
  <WebPageName>blah</WebPageName>
</defaults>

I cannot seem to locate theXML file, keep getting a "Object set to null reference" error

Solution 1

If it is a Web app you get somthing like http://yoursite/Content/settings.xml. Check whether this file path exists on the web server. If it is a WinForms app use ExecutionPath or Environment variables to get the path you need.

You should also use something like if(File.Exists(yourFilePathHere))

Solution 2

Instead of

xmldoc.Load(HttpContext.Server.MapPath("~/Content/settings.xml"));

try with only

xmldoc.Load(Server.MapPath("~/Content/settings.xml"));

Comments

[Ben Robinson]

What line causes the null ref exception? If xmldoc.Load couldn't find the file you would get some kind of IO exception not a null ref.

[Thinhbk]

maybe the Path is not correct. xmldoc.Load(HttpContext.Server.MapPath("~/Content/settings.x‌​ml"));

[JustAnotherDeveloper]

Exception Details: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. Source Error: Line 29: //Now set up the config xml read Line 30: XmlDocument xmldoc = new XmlDocument(); Line 31: xmldoc.Load(Server.MapPath("~/Content/settings.xml"));

[Steve B]

using the debugger, try to find what is null. If required, refactor the code to use a variable like this : var filePath = HttpContext.Server.MapPath("~/Content/settings.xml"); xmldoc.Load(filePath); in order to check if the file is actually found, also, which line is the 29th ?

[JustAnotherDeveloper]

For some reason, httpContext is null when I inspect it. line 29 is just a comment. "//Now set up the config xml read"

[JustAnotherDeveloper]

Just checked from the browser, and the file is accessible. I think it may have something to do with how I am calling the file?

[Scarlaxx]

So try to use a stream from webrequest instead of the string.