Write HTML to string

Question

I have code like this. Is there a way to make it easier to write and maintain? Using C# .NET 3.5.

string header(string title)
{
    StringWriter s = new Stri         


        

Answer 1

Use an XDocument to create the DOM, then write it out using an XmlWriter. This will give you a wonderfully concise and readable notation as well as nicely formatted output.

Take this sample program:

using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Linq;

class Program {
    static void Main() {
        var xDocument = new XDocument(
            new XDocumentType("html", null, null, null),
            new XElement("html",
                new XElement("head"),
                new XElement("body",
                    new XElement("p",
                        "This paragraph contains ", new XElement("b", "bold"), " text."
                    ),
                    new XElement("p",
                        "This paragraph has just plain text."
                    )
                )
            )
        );

        var settings = new XmlWriterSettings {
            OmitXmlDeclaration = true, Indent = true, IndentChars = "\t"
        };
        using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(@"C:\Users\wolf\Desktop\test.html", settings)) {
            xDocument.WriteTo(writer);
        }
    }
}

This generates the following output:

    
    
        
This paragraph contains bold text.
        
This paragraph has just plain text.