How to load XML Content at Runtime?

Describes how to load custom game data at game runtime through the Content Pipeline.

This example concludes the procedure begun in the tutorial Adding an XML Content File to a Visual Studio Project.

Once custom game data is integrated as game content from an XML file through the Content Pipeline, it exists within your game runtime package in binary format. The data can be loaded at runtime through the ContentManager.

Important

This tutorial assumes you are using Visual Studio as your IDE, for VSCode please adapt the IDE interactions appropriately.

Add a SpriteFont for testing

While not essential for loading XML, in order to demonstrate the loaded data and write it to the screen, we will add a SpriteFont to enable the drawing of strings.

In the Solution Explorer, Double-click the Content.mgcb in the Content folder to open the MGCB editor.

Tip

If you have any issues opening the MGCB content project, please refer to the How to load content guide.
Click on Edit -> New Item, then name the file Font and select SpriteFont Description as the type. Click on Create to finish.
Save the content project and then continue.

To load the custom data in the game

To add the MyDataTypes library as a reference in the game project, In the Solution Explorer, right-click the game project, click Add Reference, click the Projects tab, select MyDataTypes, and then click OK.
Then in the Solution Explorer, double-click Game1.cs to edit it.
Add the using declaration for the MyDataTypes namespace at the top of the file beneath the existing usings statements.
```
using MyDataTypes;
```
Add a data declaration for an array of type PetData after the other private variables in the Game1 class.
```
private PetData[] pets;
```
In the Game.LoadContent override function, load the custom content.
```
protected override void LoadContent()
{
    // Load the pet data table
    pets = Content.Load<PetData[]>("pets");
}
```
The custom game data now resides in the array of PetData objects.

The data loaded from the XML file into the PetData array can be accessed normally as c# code, for example, the following Draw code will render the data from the XML file to the screen if found, else it will write a warning.

    protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
    {
        GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);

        _spriteBatch.Begin();
        // Check if the XML data was loaded into the pets data array.
        if (pets != null)
        {
           // For each pet, write its data to the screen.
           for (int i = 0; i < pets.Length; i++)
            {
                var pet = pets[i];
                _spriteBatch.DrawString(Content.Load<SpriteFont>("Font"), $"{pet.Name} / {pet.Species}: Weight [{pet.Weight}] - Age: [{pet.Age}]", new Vector2(100, 100 + 20 * i), Color.White);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            // If no data was loaded (or there was an error) write `No Pets found` to the screen.
            _spriteBatch.DrawString(Content.Load<SpriteFont>("Font"), "No pets found", new Vector2(100, 100), Color.White);
        }
        _spriteBatch.End();
        base.Draw(gameTime);
    }

The result of loading the XML and rendering the data should display as follows:

XML data output

Table of Contents

How to load XML Content at Runtime?

Important

Add a SpriteFont for testing

Tip

To load the custom data in the game

See Also