Loading an XML file via the Monogame content pipeline?

Question

I am currently trying to port a game I am working on from XNA to Monogame, but I am having some trouble getting the content pipeline to cooperate. My game uses a number of XML files as XNB assets to represent objects in the game, which I created following the instructions here. However, trying to move this across word-for-word into Monogame produces the following error:

An unhandled exception of type 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentLoadException' occurred in MonoGame.Framework.dll

Additional information: Could not load Parts\Window.xnb asset as a non-content file!

Here is the class I have been using to define the content of the XML files:

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework;
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content;
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml.Linq;

namespace FileTypes
{
    public class PartFile
    {
        public struct State
        {
            public Rectangle[] frames;
            public int[] collision;
        }

        public Vector2 size;
        public string image;
        public string defaultState = "default";
        public bool fillBG;
        public int ticksPerFrame;
        public Dictionary<string, State> states;
        public string[] modules;
    }
}

Here is one of the XML files in the project:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<XnaContent>
  <Asset Type="FileTypes.PartFile">
    <size>2 3</size>
    <image>Computer</image>
    <defaultState>default</defaultState>
    <fillBG>false</fillBG>
    <ticksPerFrame>7</ticksPerFrame>
    <states>
      <Item>
        <Key>default</Key>
        <Value>
          <frames>
            0 0 40 60
            40 0 40 60
          </frames>
          <collision>
            0 0
            0 0
            0 0
          </collision>
        </Value>
      </Item>
      <Item>
        <Key>active</Key>
        <Value>
          <frames>
            80 0 40 60
            120 0 40 60
          </frames>
          <collision>
            0 0
            0 0
            0 0
          </collision>
        </Value>
      </Item>
    </states>
    <modules>
      <Item>testModule</Item>
    </modules>
  </Asset>
</XnaContent>

And finally here is a sample of the code I use to load the file:

FileTypes.PartFile srcPart = content.Load<FileTypes.PartFile>("Parts\\" + name);

Does anybody know what I need to do in order to get my code working in Monogame? I've been looking around the internet for a fair while, but so far I've yet to find a solution to my issue. Alternatively, if I've been going about the entire system wrong all this time and there's a far easier way to handle what I want to do, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks in advance!

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 26 '15 at 12:26

I wrote a rather long tutorial about loading custom content with the MonoGame Pipeline. Here's the summary

Create a new project to hold your content importer, processor and writer
Create the content importer
Create the content processor
Create the content type writer
Create the content type reader
Reference the DLL from the Pipeline tool
Read the content into your game

Creating the importer, processor, reader and writer is the same as XNA. You can refer to the MSDN documentation for that.

The tricky part is getting your DLL to work with the Pipeline tool. To add it as a reference look for the the References property of the root tree node.

Found this which appears to be the article in question: http://www.vodacek.zvb.cz/archiv/604.html — bwoogie, Apr 27 '21 at 01:16

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 20 '14 at 03:56

0

Unless I'm mistaken, you need to set the build action of the file to "Content" and the copy to output directory to "copy if newer" in the properties tab for the file

answered Feb 20 '14 at 03:56

Nico

94
9

I've done this and it still doesn't work I'm afraid. – Hunter X Feb 20 '14 at 14:10
oops, just looked into the links you posted (I've never used xml for content pipeline data), and I doubt you can do that in monogame, as it does not have a content pipeline, and so it cant convert the xml into xnb files, your better off to build the files in xna and just copy the xnb files in to your monogame project and do the above ^ to them – Nico Feb 21 '14 at 01:53

Wallstrider · Answer 3 · 2014-05-26T21:29:20.670

0

Content.Load<T> uses Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.IntermediateSerializer for an xml. Monogame doesn't support Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline. It means you cannot deserialize an intermediate xml.

edited May 26 '14 at 21:29

answered May 26 '14 at 19:18

Wallstrider

856
1
7
22

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 24 '16 at 08:31

Monogame comes with content processors for XML. Open up the content pipeline app and add an XML file; you will see it has the importer XmlImporter and processor PassThroughProcessor.

Take a look at @craftworkgames excellent tutorials for how to extend the behaviour.

Loading an XML file via the Monogame content pipeline?

4 Answers4