In this article I will explain with an example, how to display Formatted XML in Browser in ASP.Net Core MVC.
The XML file will be read as string and then its contents will be written to the Response as XML which will ultimately display the Formatted XML in Browser in ASP.Net Core MVC.
Note: For beginners in ASP.Net Core, please refer my article ASP.Net Core MVC Hello World Tutorial with Sample Program example.
 
 

XML File Location

The XML file is present inside the wwwroot Folder (Directory).
ASP.Net Core: Display Formatted XML in Browser
 
 

XML File URL

The following XML file will be used in this article.
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<Customers>
 <Customer>
    <Id>1</Id>
    <Name>John Hammond</Name>
    <Country>United States</Country>
 </Customer>
 <Customer>
    <Id>2</Id>
    <Name>Mudassar Khan</Name>
    <Country>India</Country>
 </Customer>
 <Customer>
    <Id>3</Id>
    <Name>Suzanne Mathews</Name>
    <Country>France</Country>
 </Customer>
 <Customer>
    <Id>4</Id>
    <Name>Robert Schidner</Name>
    <Country>Russia</Country>
 </Customer>
</Customers>
 
 

Namespaces

You will need to import the following namespaces.
using System.IO;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
 
 

Controller

The Controller consists of following Action method.

Action method for handling GET operation

Inside the Index Action method, first the Response properties are set using IHttpContextAccessor interface.
Note: For more details about IHttpContextAccessor interface, please refer Using HttpContext in ASP.Net Core.
 
ContentType – It informs the Browser about the file type. In this case it is XML.
Once the Response properties are set, the path of the XML file is fetched from the wwwroot path using IHostingEnvironment interface.
Note: For more details about IHostingEnvironment interface, please refer Using IHostingEnvironment in ASP.Net Core.
 
The XML file contents are read as string using ReadAllText method of File class and then stored in a string variable.
Finally, the string variable i.e. XML file contents are sent to the Client Browser as string using the Content method.
Note: For more details on how to use Content method, please refer my article ContentResult .Net Core Example: Using ContentResult in ASP.Net Core MVC.
 
public class HomeController : Controller
{
    private IHostingEnvironment Environment { get; set; }
    private IHttpContextAccessor Accessor;
 
    public HomeController(IHostingEnvironment _environment, IHttpContextAccessor _accessor)
    {
        this.Environment = _environment;
        this.Accessor = _accessor;
    }
 
    public IActionResult Index()
    {
        //Set the Response properties.
        this.Accessor.HttpContext.Response.Clear();
        this.Accessor.HttpContext.Response.Headers.Add("Charset", "");
        this.Accessor.HttpContext.Response.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/xml");
 
        //Read the XML file contents as String.
        string path = Path.Combine(this.Environment.WebRootPath, "Customers.xml");
        string xml = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(path);
        return Content(xml);
    }
}
 
 

View

There is no HTML required inside the View and hence this section is skipped except.
@{
    Layout = null;
}
 
<!DOCTYPE html>
 
<html>
<head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
    <title>Index</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
 
 

Screenshot

ASP.Net Core: Display Formatted XML in Browser
 
 

Browser Compatibility

The above code has been tested in the following browsers.
Microsoft Edge  FireFox  Chrome  Safari  Opera
* All browser logos displayed above are property of their respective owners.
 
 

Downloads

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