Rendering XML as a FlowDocument

If you’d like to render XML as a WPF FlowDocument, give this a try (ClickOnce sample; source available here or on CodePlex).  Here’s a screenshot:

The useful part is the PrettyXmlConverter class (view here; it’s “self documenting” ).  It’s implemented as an IValueConverter so you can easily include it in binding expressions:

<Window x:Class="XmlFlowDocumentSample.Window1"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:converters="clr-namespace:CJC.Wpf.Converters"
    Title="Pretty XML FlowDocument sample">

    <Window.Resources>
        <converters:PrettyXmlConverter x:Key="prettyXmlConverter"/>
        <XmlDataProvider x:Key="xmlSource" Source="Xml/Books.xml" IsAsynchronous="False"/>
    </Window.Resources>

    <Grid>

        <FlowDocumentReader ViewingMode="Scroll" Zoom="300"
                            Document="{Binding Source={StaticResource xmlSource}, Path=Document, BindsDirectlyToSource=true, Converter={StaticResource prettyXmlConverter}}">
        </FlowDocumentReader>

    </Grid>

</Window>

 

Currently it only renders elements and attributes, so no comments, processing instructions or explicit CDATA handling.  These could be added very easily if needed

The formatted XML pastes nicely into MS Word (formatting preserved).