C # - Retrieving data from an online xml file

Question

How can I get data from this xml site ( http://xboxapi.duncanmackenzie.net/gamertag.ashx?GamerTag=Festive+Turkey ) and specify the data and use it as a string?

Answer 1

If you want to get XML into a readable data structure directly, you can load it through a URI directly into an XDocument object.

string uri = "http://xboxapi.duncanmackenzie.net/gamertag.ashx?GamerTag=Festive+Turkey";
XDocument document = XDocument.Load(uri);

Then you can easily retrieve information through Linq-to-XML in a specific or anonymous type. (Check the System.Linq and System.Xml.Linq namespaces.)

Other XML methods include serialization, XmlDocuments and XPath, etc.

Here is an example of what you could do with XML and Linq.

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Xml.Linq;

class XboxStats
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string uri = "http://xboxapi.duncanmackenzie.net/gamertag.ashx?GamerTag=Festive+Turkey";
        XDocument document = XDocument.Load(uri);

        var xboxInfo = document.Element("XboxInfo");

        var data = new
        {
            AccountStatus = (string)xboxInfo.Element("AccountStatus"),
            PresenceInfo = new
            {
                Valid = (bool)xboxInfo.Element("PresenceInfo").Element("Valid"),
                Info = (string)xboxInfo.Element("PresenceInfo").Element("Info"),
                Info2 = (string)xboxInfo.Element("PresenceInfo").Element("Info2"),
                LastSeen = (DateTime)xboxInfo.Element("PresenceInfo").Element("LastSeen"),
                Online = (bool)xboxInfo.Element("PresenceInfo").Element("Online"),
                StatusText = (string)xboxInfo.Element("PresenceInfo").Element("StatusText"),
                Title = (string)xboxInfo.Element("PresenceInfo").Element("Title")
            },
            State = (string)xboxInfo.Element("State"),
            Gamertag = (string)xboxInfo.Element("Gamertag"),
            ProfileUrl = (string)xboxInfo.Element("ProfileUrl"),
            TileUrl = (string)xboxInfo.Element("TileUrl"),
            Country = (string)xboxInfo.Element("Country"),
            Reputation = (decimal)xboxInfo.Element("Reputation"),
            Bio = (string)xboxInfo.Element("Bio"),
            Location = (string)xboxInfo.Element("Location"),
            ReputationImageUrl = (string)xboxInfo.Element("ReputationImageUrl"),
            GamerScore = (int)xboxInfo.Element("GamerScore"),
            Zone = (string)xboxInfo.Element("Zone"),
            RecentGames = new
            {
                XboxUserGameInfos = from gameInfo in xboxInfo.Element("RecentGames").Elements("XboxUserGameInfo")
                                    select new
                                    {
                                        Game = new
                                        {
                                            Name = (string)gameInfo.Element("Game").Element("Name"),
                                            TotalAchievements = (int)gameInfo.Element("Game").Element("TotalAchievements"),
                                            TotalGamerScore = (int)gameInfo.Element("Game").Element("TotalGamerScore"),
                                            Image32Url = (string)gameInfo.Element("Game").Element("Image32Url"),
                                            Image64Url = (string)gameInfo.Element("Game").Element("Image64Url")
                                        },
                                        LastPlayed = (DateTime)gameInfo.Element("LastPlayed"),
                                        Achievements = (int)gameInfo.Element("Achievements"),
                                        GamerScore = (int)gameInfo.Element("GamerScore"),
                                        DetailsUrl = (string)gameInfo.Element("DetailsUrl")
                                    }

            }
        };

        Console.WriteLine(data.AccountStatus);

        foreach (var gameInfo in data.RecentGames.XboxUserGameInfos)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(gameInfo.Game.Name);
        }

        Console.Read();
    }
}

Answer 2

WebClient

    public static string GetWebPage(Uri uri) {
        if ((uri == null)) {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("uri");
        }

        using (var request = new WebClient()) {
            //Download the data
            var requestData = request.DownloadData(uri);

            //Return the data by encoding it back to text!
            return Encoding.ASCII.GetString(requestData);
        }
    }

Answer 3

WebClient:

Uri url = new Uri("http://xboxapi.duncanmackenzie.net/gamertag.ashx?GamerTag=" + Uri.EscapeDataString(str));
using (var wc = new WebClient()) {
    return request.DownloadString(url);
}