How to Learn XML Editor
When learning XML in Visual Studio, the editor is color coded to make understanding of the code easier. To learn XML, you need to understand what the elements mean and how to correctly place them in the file. XML has become a standard in web development, so it's an important aspect of programming. Knowing how to use the editor helps the programmer integrate XML files into applications and troubleshoot an issues should they occur from the XML code.
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Instructions
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1
Open Visual Studio and insert a new XML file into the project. A new XML file can be created by right-clicking the project name in Solution Explorer and selecting "Add." Included in the list of file types is XML. Select this icon in the window and press "Ok." A new file opens with a shell of a basic XML file. This shell can help you learn how XML is laid out and programmed.
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2
Include the XML version at the top of the page. This should be the very first line of the XML editor code. It explains to the browser how to interpret the syntax within the file. Below is an example of an XML version line of code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> -
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3
Insert the root node. The root node is the first element of the XML code. It describes the overall recordset within the file. For instance, if this XML file contained a list of customers, the first node in the file could be <customers>. The template created by the XML editor places the root node with the name <root> in the file.
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4
Insert the record label. In this example, a list of customers comprises this XML file. Typically, the record label relates to the root node label. For instance, since the root node is customers, the record label used could be <customer>. This indicates a new record throughout the file. When Visual Studio creates a template in the XML editor, it uses <element1>.
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5
Insert the data elements. Now that you have the record started from step 4, the information for the record is populated. This can be anything that relates to the XML tags. For instance, since this is a file with a list of customers, inserting <first_name> and <last_name> tags could be used to populate the records. These tags hold the customer's information. Once these elements are populated, use the </customer> tag to end the record. For the template created by Visual Studio, the element that corresponds with the record's data is the <element2> tag.
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