Edit XML object on web page

[Jakob Lithner]

I have been asked to make a web gui for users entering complex data.
The data is really on the form of xml structures that can be partly verified
with a schema.

But we want the users to have as nice GUI as possible. Right now they are
not aware of the underlying XML structure.
My idea was to let them edit XML on the web page, but get relevant feedback.
Has anyone done something similar?
Is it possible to automatically generate GUI controls that would make the
editing more robust?
Any good components?

 

[Allen Chen [MSFT]]

Hi,

From your description I think you haven't decided which UI to use that can
achieve the requirement, right?

If so I can recommend two controls. The DataGrid/GridView and TreeView.

If the xml data has schema like a table we can use DataGrid/GridView to
edit data. Here're some documentations:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/Edit_Xml.aspx
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/Edit_Xml.aspx

If you're using TreeView (get started from
http://quickstarts.asp.net/QuickStartv20/aspnet/doc/ctrlref/navigation/treev
iew.aspx) to display the xml data we need to write more code. A general way
to do this is to show some UI for edit when a node is selected. The code
may vary according to your requirement.

After you've decided which UI to use please update here and we can discuss
further.

Regards,
Allen Chen
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Jakob Lithner]

Thanks for suggestions but I am afraid they will not do.
Our XML structure is far too complex to be visualized as a table in a grid.
TreeView is more flexible but not really the easy-to-use GUI that I intended.
My vision was probably to have textboxes, listboxes, comboboxes and
checkboxes dynamically generated in some kind of way, but it is pretty vague

 

[Allen Chen [MSFT]]

Hi,

Since the requirement is a bit vague I think we'd better use an example for
the discussion. Could you give me a sample xml and tell me what the UIs are
required for update? I think it's also flexible to use GridView since we
can dynamically add controls to GridView easily. I'd like to demonstrate
how to populate the controls you need in the GridView (If it's improper to
use GridView I'll try TreeView).

Regards,
Allen Chen
Microsoft Online Community Support

 

[Allen Chen [MSFT]]

Hi,

Do you have any progress on this issue?

Regards,
Allen Chen
Microsoft Online Community Support

 

[Allen Chen [MSFT]]

Hi,

Do you have any progress on this issue?

Regards,
Allen Chen
Microsoft Online Community Support

 

[Jakob Lithner]

Yes and no.
We decided to go for a treeview control and edit one node at the time.
It is a lot af manual work creating all needed controls on each node level,
but at least it works .....