How do I validate an XML document against a DTD in C#?

Matthew picture Matthew · Nov 1, 2009 · Viewed 7.9k times · Source

I don't want to do anything fancy, I just want to make sure a document is valid, and print an error message if it is not. Google pointed me to this, but it seems XmlValidatingReader is obsolete (at least, that's what MonoDevelop tells me).

Edit: I'm trying Mehrdad's tip, but I'm having trouble. I think I've got most of it, but I can't find OnValidationEvent anywhere. Where go I get OnValidationEvent from?

XmlReaderSettings settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
settings.ValidationType = ValidationType.DTD;
settings.ValidationEventHandler += new ValidationEventHandler(/*trouble is here*/);
XmlReader validatingReader = XmlReader.Create(fileToLoad, settings);

Answer

mmx picture mmx · Nov 1, 2009

Instead of creating XmlValidatingReader class directly, you should construct an appropriate XmlReaderSettings object and pass it as an argument to the XmlReader.Create method:

var settings = new XmlReaderSettings { ValidationType = ValidationType.DTD };
settings.ValidationEventHandler += new ValidationEventHandler(OnValidationEvent);
var reader = XmlReader.Create("file.xml", settings);

The rest is unchanged.

P.S. OnValidationEvent is the name of the method you declare to handle validation events. Obviously, you can remove the line if you don't want to subscribe to validation events raised by the XmlReader.