How do I output xml with ASP.NET razor?

Question

Hi I'm trying to return a view that is xml, meaning the content type will be "text/xml", and the view is using ASP.NET MVC razor. Another post ASP.NET MVC and text/xml content type showed how to do it with aspx view. How do I get the same done with razor?

Answer 1

I found an example of an rss feed produced with a razor view here:

writing xml in razor syntax

Basically you have to set the Response.ContentType to "text/xml", and then you can just write your xml as if it was html.

You have to scroll down to see the actual code so I'll copy it here:

@{
    var db = Database.OpenFile("Database.sdf");
    var getRss = db.Query("SELECT TOP(5) * FROM Table" );
    Response.ContentType = "text/xml";
}
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/">
    <channel>
        <title>Website name</title>
        <link>website link</link>
        <description>News for website</description>
        <dc:language>en-gb</dc:language>
        <dc:creator>email</dc:creator>
        <dc:rights>Copyright 2010</dc:rights>
        <admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.styledna.net/" />
        @foreach (var row in getRss) {
            <item>
                <title>@row.title</title>
                <link>@row.link</link>
                <description> some html desc for the item </description>  
            </item>
        }
    </channel>
</rss>

by Mikesdotnetting

Answer 2

If you prefer you can instead make the content type change from your view action, like so:

public ActionResult MyAction() {
    Response.ContentType = "text/xml";
    return View();
}

Answer 3

For anyone trying to do this is ASP.NET Core, you can find the Response as a property of the Context:

@{
    Context.Response.ContentType = "text/xml";
}
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<doc>
    ...
</doc>

Although I found setting the content type in the Action worked perfectly well (as suggested by @Luis above)