Export GridView Records to XML Using ASP.Net C#

Vithal Wadje
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Article

Background

There is often a need in a project's reporting module to export GridView Records to XML. So by considering that requirement I decided to write this article especially focusing on beginners and those who want to learn how to export a GridView to XML using ASP.NET C#.

Now before creating the application, let us create a table named employee in a database from where we show the records in a Grid view, the table has the following fields (shown in the following image):

I hope you have created the same type of table.

"Start" - "All Programs" - "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010".
"File" - "New Project" - "C#" - "Empty Project" (to avoid adding a master page).
Provide the Project name such as ExportGridRecordsToXML or another as you wish and specify the location.
Then right-click on Solution Explorer - "Add New Item" - Default.aspx page.
One Button and a grid view.

Now the default.aspx source code will be such as follows:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="ExPortGridviewToXML.Default" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head id="Head1" runat="server">
<title></title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="Silver">
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<br />
<h2 style="color: #808000; font-size: x-large; font-weight: bolder;">
Article by Vithal Wadje</h2>
<br />
<div>
<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" CellPadding="6" ForeColor="#333333" GridLines="None">
<AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="White" />
<EditRowStyle BackColor="#7C6F57" />
<FooterStyle BackColor="#1C5E55" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
<HeaderStyle BackColor="#1C5E55" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
<PagerStyle BackColor="#666666" ForeColor="White" HorizontalAlign="Center" />
<RowStyle BackColor="#E3EAEB" />
<SelectedRowStyle BackColor="#C5BBAF" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="#333333" />
<SortedAscendingCellStyle BackColor="#F8FAFA" />
<SortedAscendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#246B61" />
<SortedDescendingCellStyle BackColor="#D4DFE1" />
<SortedDescendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#15524A" />
</asp:GridView>
<br />
<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server"
Text="Export" OnClick="Button1_Click" />
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Now let us create a function to bind the records to the Grid view from the database. If you are a beginner and don't understand in detail how to bind a Grid view from a database then refer to my following article.

Inserting Form Data Into DataBase and Display In ASP.Net GridView

Now, for this article create the following function in the default.aspx.cs page to bind the Grid view:

private void Bindgrid()
{
connection();
query = "select *from Employee";//not recommended this i have written just for example,write stored procedure for security
com = new SqlCommand(query, con);
SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(query, con);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
da.Fill(ds);
DataTable GridSource = ds.Tables[0];
GridView1.DataSource = GridSource;
GridView1.DataBind();
con.Close();
ViewState["Data"] = GridSource;
}

Now, call the preceding function on page load as:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
Bindgrid();
}
}

Now create the following function to export the Grid view records to XML:

private void ExportGridToXML()
{
SaveFileDialog SaveXMLFileDialog = new SaveFileDialog();
SaveXMLFileDialog.Filter = "Xml files (*.xml)|*.xml";
SaveXMLFileDialog.FilterIndex = 2;
SaveXMLFileDialog.RestoreDirectory = true;
SaveXMLFileDialog.InitialDirectory = "C:\\";
SaveXMLFileDialog.FileName = "Vithal_Wadje";
SaveXMLFileDialog.Title = "XML Export";
if (SaveXMLFileDialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
DataTable dtxml = (DataTable)ViewState["Data"];
ds.Tables.Add(dtxml);
ds.WriteXml(File.OpenWrite(SaveXMLFileDialog.FileName));
}
XMLFileThread.Abort();
}

We have created the preceding function that is used to export the dataTable to XML that is used for a GridView as a DataSource.

Now call the preceding function on the Export button click as:

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
XMLFileThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ExportGridToXML));
XMLFileThread.ApartmentState = ApartmentState.STA;
XMLFileThread.Start();
}

The entire code of the default.aspx page will look such as follows:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data;
using System.Threading;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Configuration;
namespace ExPortGridviewToXML
{
public partial class Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
private SqlConnection con;
private SqlCommand com;
private string constr, query;
Thread XMLFileThread;
private void connection()
{
constr = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["getconn"].ToString();
con = new SqlConnection(constr);
con.Open();
}
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
Bindgrid();
}
}
private void Bindgrid()
{
connection();
query = "select *from Employee";//not recommended this i have written just for example,write stored procedure for security
com = new SqlCommand(query, con);
SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(query, con);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
da.Fill(ds);
DataTable GridSource = ds.Tables[0];
GridView1.DataSource = GridSource;
GridView1.DataBind();
con.Close();
ViewState["Data"] = GridSource;
}
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
XMLFileThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ExportGridToXML));
XMLFileThread.ApartmentState = ApartmentState.STA;
XMLFileThread.Start();
}
private void ExportGridToXML()
{
SaveFileDialog SaveXMLFileDialog = new SaveFileDialog();
SaveXMLFileDialog.Filter = "Xml files (*.xml)|*.xml";
SaveXMLFileDialog.FilterIndex = 2;
SaveXMLFileDialog.RestoreDirectory = true;
SaveXMLFileDialog.InitialDirectory = "C:\\";
SaveXMLFileDialog.FileName = "Vithal_Wadje";
SaveXMLFileDialog.Title = "XML Export";
if (SaveXMLFileDialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
DataTable dtxml = (DataTable)ViewState["Data"];
ds.Tables.Add(dtxml);
ds.WriteXml(File.OpenWrite(SaveXMLFileDialog.FileName));
}
XMLFileThread.Abort();
}
}
}

Now run the application and then we can see the following records in the Grid view:

Now click on the export button. The XML file that is created will be saved on my Desktop because I have given the C drive path in the code, however you can specify any path as you wish, the file will look such as follows:

Now open the file using Visual Studio or any browser. I will open it with the IE browser then the records will look such as follows:

Now you see that all the records of the Grid view are exported to an XML file.

Notes

Download the Zip file from the attachment for the full source code of the application.
Change the connection string in the web.config file to specify your server location.
You can save the XML file that is created to any location.
We are actually exporting the Data Table to XML that is used for a Grid view as a Data Source.

Summary

I hope this article is useful for all readers, if you have any suggestion then please contact me including beginners also.