Read XML file from document library (All Sharepoint version)

Last week someone asked one question in forum about reading XML file from document library. As we know the implementation of XDocument.Load(string) doesn't supports an authenticated request to retrieve the XML file so we can use the Stream or FileStream to read the file directly, otherwise you will get 401 error.

This code is tested in SP 2010 but should work in other versions as well.

If you want to read a file using an application from client machine then use below code:

string strFileURL = "http://servername/sites/TestSite/TestLib/Text.xml ";

WebClient webClient = new WebClient();

webClient.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials

using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(webClient.OpenRead(strFileURL))

XDocument Xdoc = XDocument.Parse(reader.ReadToEnd());

}

Note: If your XML is a fragment rather than a fully formed XML document then you may expect below error.
Error: There are multiple root elements, line, position .

Workaround: Use XmlDocument class to accept fragment. Ref Link (http://forums.asp.net/t/1234195.aspx)

XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();

xmlDocument.LoadXml(string.Format("<root>{0}</root>",reader.ReadToEnd));

string value = xmlDocument.SelectSingleNode("root/app.Status").InnerText;

If you want to read a file using client object model then use below code:

ClientContext context = new ClientContext("http://servername/sites/TestSite");

context.ExecuteQuery();

Uri testuri = new Uri(strFileURL);

FileInformation info = File.OpenBinaryDirect(context, testuri.AbsolutePath);

using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(info.Stream))

XDocument Xdoc = XDocument.Parse(reader.ReadToEnd());

xDoc = xdoc.ToXmlDocument();

}