Help with reading XML / RSS feed

Question

I really have not worked much with XML and I would appreciate some help.

I am trying to read an RSS feed from WeatherBug

I found some sample code here:

http://geekswithblogs.net/thibbard/archive/2006/01/13/65764.aspx

Where they are using System.Data.DataSet to read the XML feed.

(They are using VBasic I am using VC#)

Here is a sample of the XML I am trying to read:

http://api.wxbug.net/getLiveCompactWeatherRSS.aspx?ACode=A5333948364&zipcode=80918&unittype=0&OutputType=1

In the code example they get the wind speed as follows:

_wind = DS.Tables("wind-speed").Rows(0).Item("wind-speed_Text")

How do I know what to specify for each of the index values?  I think I understand how they determined to specify wind-speed but how did they determine how to specify wind-speed_Text?

I can see the values in my debugger using:

m_ds.Tables["wind-speed"].Rows[0].ItemArray

I can see 3 values. "MPH", "3" and 0.

MPH would be the units.  "3" would be the speed.  Not sure what 0 is.

And how would I access the value at:

<aws:api version="2.0"/>

and

<aws:WebURL>http://weather.weatherbug.com/CO/Colorado Springs-weather.html?ZCode=Z5546&Units=0&stat=COLED</aws:WebURL>

?

Thanks

Answer 1

If you want to read an RSS feed from .NET, you can use the classes available in the System.ServiceModel.Syndication namespace: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.servicemodel.syndication.aspx.

In particular, that class to start with is SyndacationFeed: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.servicemodel.syndication.syndicationfeed.aspx.

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Marco Minerva [MCPD]
Blog: http://blogs.ugidotnet.org/marcom
Twitter: @marcominerva

Answer 2

You can also use WebClient to get the XML feed. Then you can load it in an XDocument and query it through Linq to XML. Here is sample code I made that retrieves the latest news of an RSS feed:

        public static string GetLastNews(string uri)
        {
            return (from xe in XElement.Parse((new WebClient()).DownloadString(uri)).Descendants("item").Elements("title")
                    select xe.Value).FirstOrDefault();
        }

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My blog

Whether you’re a construction worker, a forum moderator, or just someone that likes helping people. I think these guidelines can be helpful in keeping you helpful when being helpful.

Answer 3

You can also use WebClient to get the XML feed. Then you can load it in an XDocument and query it through Linq to XML. Here is sample code I made that retrieves the latest news of an RSS feed:

        public static string GetLastNews(string uri)
        {
            return (from xe in XElement.Parse((new WebClient()).DownloadString(uri)).Descendants("item").Elements("title")
                    select xe.Value).FirstOrDefault();
        }

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My blog

Whether you’re a construction worker, a forum moderator, or just someone that likes helping people. I think these guidelines can be helpful in keeping you helpful when being helpful.

Thanks. I was thinking about using XDocument.  But why did the other programmer choose System.Data.DataSet?

Any chance I can get you an example of how I would access an attribute and a value in my xPage>

I also saw an example of using selectSingleNode.   Is that a way to go to?

Answer 4

XDocument is reasonably new so most examples would use other techniques.  A lot of programmers will use the first hit without thinking too much about future proofing their code.

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Ta Ken