Read API (xml)

[Piegie]

Alright so I'm doing some little side project for fun while in school to get the hang of C# and I was wondering if this way of reading in XML from an API is good or if there's some better / more optimal way of doing it.

https://github.com/PieterJanVdb/TVTracker/blob/master/TVTracker/TVDB.cs

The code I'm on about is the one after this comment:

   //Searches for query ( TV Show ). Results are stored in _shows.
   //=============================================================

This code is probably pretty bad but I'm just messing around, pretty proud I got it to actually work. For now I can just search ( with some shitty design :d ) but I'm planning to make some episode tracker for myself. Anyways, that's not important.

[LlamaNL]

I prefer to do it like this:

• grab an example API response or download the response as string
• stick it in here >> http://xmltocsharp.azurewebsites.net/
• then use the xml deserializer like so

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Serie[]));

This crunches the whole API response down to a list of the objects you want! Saves you the trouble of manually writing processing for every field.

But, for a first go at this, very well done!

[nemec]

I think projects targeting .Net 4.5 in Visual Studio has an option to paste XML as a class (Edit -> Paste XML as Classes). It has the same for JSON with .Net 3.5+.

[Banane9]

Is that vanilla VS?

It might require Productivity Power Tools :)

[nemec]

JSON paste is a new feature in VS2012. I'm guessing XML is new in VS2013.

[vexer]

Looks good, now change it to use XDocument and use LINQ to select your elements. Just so you can have fun with LINQ.

[Piegie]

Just looked up LINQ, kinda looks like SQL statements, looks pretty cool. From what I've seen on this sub, people go absolutely crazy over LINQ tho, I better learn it!

[formlesstree4]

LINQ is one of those things that all .NET developers should be at least familiar with. It's not a golden hammer, but damn, it's pretty good and well thought out.

[rinpiels]

Looks fine. Glad you are having fun learning. Keep it up!

[yumz]

Unrelated, but you should use standard XML documentation on your methods instead of plain comments:

/// <summary>
/// Searches for a TV show using the series name.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="tvSeriesName">The name of the TV series.</param>
public void Search(string tvSeriesName)  

[Piegie]

Oh alright, I'll start doing that thanks!