How can I read the contents of the file below and then access the <tag>, tpEdit and place the contents of <phrase> into an asp:label?  The xml file has an unknown length.  In other words, the file will be read once and some of the items will be used to fill the text fields of labels.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<items>
<item>
    <lang>English</lang>
    <tag>btnOK</tag>
    <phrase>OK</phrase>
</item>
<item>
    <lang>English</lang>
    <tag>btnCancel</tag>
    <phrase>Cancel</phrase>
</item>
<item>
    <lang>English</lang>
    <tag>tpEdit</tag>
    <phrase>Edit claim</phrase>
</item>
</items>

Todd

you can do it using following code.

Imports System

Imports System.Xml

Partial Class _Default

    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

        Dim doc As New XmlDocument()

       ' for example; if you want to read the XMLFile.xml to get contents.

        doc.Load(Server.MapPath("XMLFile.xml"))

        Dim node As XmlNode = doc.SelectSingleNode("//item[tag/text()='tpEdit']/phrase")

        If Not node Is Nothing Then

            textbox1.text = node.InnerXml

        End If

    End Sub

End Class

You can use ListView control to display your xml file into your well defined custom database. Because ListView control provides you full control on html. Here is a article related to ListView control binding with xml file.

http://www.builderau.com.au/program/asp/soa/Display-data-with-NET-s-ListView-control/0,339028371,339287696,00.htm

@rtcary check out the sample I have written. Hope that helps

string strMyXml = "<Employee>"+
                            "<firstName>"+txtFirstName.Text+"</firstName>"+
                            "<lastName>"+txtLastName.Text+"</lastName>"+
                          "</Employee>";

        XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument();
        xDoc.LoadXml(strMyXml);
        //Here the xml is prepared and loaded in xml DOM.

        xDoc.Save(Server.MapPath("myNewXmlPerson.xml"));//instead of myNewXmlPerson , u can give any name.
        //The above line will save your XML.

        //This is one way to create xml. This method may not be very efficient to manage 500 data
        //You can go for using XmlDom instead to create xmlNodes.] Let me know if you want follow
        //xmlDom approach. To see its example you can read my blog post at
        //http://kavstech.blogspot.com/2009/07/create-xml-using-dom-and-use-xpath-to.html


        //Now if u want to read this xml and get data from it and assign their value to text box you can do like this

        txtFirstName.Text = "";
        txtLastName.Text = "";
        XmlDocument xDocRead = new XmlDocument();//I have taken this new object for your better understanding.

        xDocRead.Load(Server.MapPath("myNewXmlPerson.xml"));

        XmlNode xFN = xDocRead.SelectSingleNode("Employee/firstName");
        XmlNode xLN = xDocRead.SelectSingleNode("Employee/lastName");

        txtFirstName.Text = xFN.InnerText;
        txtLastName.Text = xLN.InnerText;

Convert XML file to dataset and retrive appropriate value from it

The XPATH /items/item[tag="tpEdit"] gives

<item>
    <lang>English</lang>
    <tag>tpEdit</tag>
    <phrase>Edit claim</phrase>
</item>

/items/item[tag="tpEdit"]/phrase gives

<phrase>Edit claim</phrase>

fill xml in dataset...

Dim myDataSet as New DataSet()
myDataSet.ReadXml(Server.MapPath("books.xml"))