Convert XElement to XmlNode (and Convert XmlNode to XElement)

Sometimes you want to convert an XmlNode to an XElement and back again.  Some programming libraries define methods that take XmlNode objects as parameters.  These libraries also may contain properties and methods that return XmlNode objects.  However, it is more convenient to work with LINQ to XML instead of the classes in System.Xml (XmlDocument, XmlNode, etc.)  This post presents a bit of code to do these conversions.

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Blog TOC(Update March 5, 2009 - I've written a blog post that shows how to convert from XDocument to XmlDocument (and vice versa).  The code presented in that post is a superset of the code presented in this code.)

As an example of where you need these methods, you can do a lot with SharePoint using web services.  The proxy classes that wsdl.exe creates contain methods that use classes in System.Xml.

It is convenient to write these conversions as extension methods.  When converting to and from classes in System.Xml, the code reads much better when you tack an extension method on the end instead of surrounding the expression with a method call.  The following code shows how to call the GetListItems method of the Lists web service using the GetXmlNode and GetXElement extension methods:

XElement queryOptions = new XElement("QueryOptions",
new XElement("Folder", "Open XML Documents"),
new XElement("ViewAttributes", new XAttribute("Scope", "Recursive"))
);

XElement viewFields = new XElement("ViewFields",
new XElement("FieldRef", new XAttribute("Name", "GUID")),
new XElement("FieldRef", new XAttribute("Name", "ContentType")),
new XElement("FieldRef", new XAttribute("Name", "BaseName")),
new XElement("FieldRef", new XAttribute("Name", "Modified")),
new XElement("FieldRef", new XAttribute("Name", "EncodedAbsUrl"))
);

XElement listContent = wsList
.GetListItems(documentLibraryGUID,
null, null, viewFields.GetXmlNode(),
null, queryOptions.GetXmlNode(), webId)
.GetXElement();

To create an XmlNode from an XElement, you create an XmlReader using the XNode.CreateReader method, create an XmlDocument, and load the document using the XmlReader.  XmlDocument inherits XmlNode.

To create an XElement from an XmlNode, you create an XDocument, create an XmlWriter using the XContainer.CreateWriter method, write the XmlNode to the XDocument, and return the root element of the XDocument.

The following example contains the extension methods and some code that shows their use:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Linq;

public static class MyExtensions
{
public static XElement GetXElement(this XmlNode node)
{
XDocument xDoc = new XDocument();
using (XmlWriter xmlWriter = xDoc.CreateWriter())
node.WriteTo(xmlWriter);
return xDoc.Root;
}

public static XmlNode GetXmlNode(this XElement element)
{
using (XmlReader xmlReader = element.CreateReader())
{
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.Load(xmlReader);
return xmlDoc;
}
}
}

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
XElement e = new XElement("Root",
new XElement("Child",
new XAttribute("Att", "1")
)
);

XmlNode xmlNode = e.GetXmlNode();
Console.WriteLine(xmlNode.OuterXml);

XElement newElement = xmlNode.GetXElement();
Console.WriteLine(newElement);
}
}

Code is attached.

Program.cs

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 22, 2008
  PingBack from http://www.codedstyle.com/convert-xelement-to-xmlnode-and-convert-xmlnode-to-xelement/

• Anonymous
  January 08, 2009
  [Blog Map] Web services are one of the most effective and convenient ways for casual developers to access

• Anonymous
  January 22, 2009
  A very good article indeed. can you let me know how to convert a XDocument or XElement to XmlDocument? thanks

• Anonymous
  February 24, 2009
  SharePoint WebService are your friend Ever wanted access to that treasure trove of information available

• Anonymous
  March 13, 2009
  This is just way cool.  Check out Eric White’s blog for a slick use of extension methods to make

• Anonymous
  August 02, 2009
  Here I was thinking that I would need to use your code because of this: [XmlAnyElement] public List<XmlElement> UnknownElements { get; set; } Where in fact it works fine with: [XmlAnyElement] public List<XElement> UnknownElements { get; set; } In any case thanks for the helpful post.

• Anonymous
  March 25, 2010
  this article is what I need now thanks --a chinese boy

• Anonymous
  September 15, 2010
  Realy helpfull

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2010
  I had the same scenario as Jonathan Dickinson (in comments) and I thought I needed your great tip, but as he points out [XmlAnyElement] works fine on a property of List<XElement> even though documentation I found says it requries a property of XmlElement[]. I still needed to do manual conversion between XAttribute and XmlAttribute because the lack of a paramaterless constructor on XAttribute means [XmlAnyAttribute] won't work on property of List<XAttribute>. Still, your code is good and it got me where I needed to be. Thanks!

• Anonymous
  October 13, 2011
  nice post thanks ktwis.blogspot.com

• Anonymous
  January 16, 2014
  the function GetXmlNode() does not work well. in order to convert an XElement to XmlNode, the function GetXmlNode() needs to be updated as below:       public static XmlNode GetXmlNode(XElement element)        {            using (XmlReader xmlReader = element.CreateReader())            {                XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();                return xmlDoc.ReadNode(xmlReader);            }        }