Signs on the Sand

In .NET 2.0 ValidationType.Auto value is made obsolete. What's worse - it doesn't work for XmlReaders created via XmlReader.Create() factory method. But how do you validate against either DTD and/or schema, i.e. against DTD if document has a DOCTYPE and/or schema if any is applicable? The answer is: you can chain two XmlReaders, one set up for performing DTD validation and second - schema validation.

XmlReaderSettings settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
settings.ValidationType = ValidationType.DTD;
XmlReader inner = XmlReader.Create("book.xml", settings); // DTD Validation
settings.Schemas.Add("urn:book-schema", "book.xsd");
settings.ValidationType = ValidationType.Schema;
XmlReader outer = XmlReader.Create(inner, settings);  // XML Schema Validation

That's so intuitive and clean, but I'm sure many won't figure it out the first time. Shame on me, but I didn't. So I write this to save somebody his time. You know, .NET used to suck on chaining XmlReaders, but not anymore.