XML - Appending [Resolved]

[mendhak]

I have an XML file with the following structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<family>
  <name gender="Male">
    <firstname>Tom</firstname>
    <lastname>Smith</lastname>
  </name>
  <name gender="Female">
    <firstname>Dale</firstname>
    <lastname>Doorknob</lastname>
  </name>
</family>

Now I'd like to append a node to this through code only. Here is what I have so far:

Dim XMLd As New XmlDocument
        
 
 
        XMLd.Load(Server.MapPath("family.xml")) 'this is fine, no problem with mapping!
        
 
        Dim xmlEl As XmlElement = XMLd.CreateElement("name")
        Dim xmlAttr As XmlAttribute = XMLd.CreateAttribute("gender")
        xmlAttr.Value = "male"
        xmlEl.Attributes.Append(xmlAttr)
 
        xmlEl.InnerXml = "<firstname></firstname><lastname></lastname>"
 
        Dim txtNode As XmlText = XMLd.CreateTextNode("Alfed E")
 
        xmlEl.FirstChild.AppendChild(txtNode)
        xmlEl.Item("lastname").InnerText = "Neumann"
 
        XMLd.DocumentElement.AppendChild(xmlEl)

When I run the code, very simply, this is what happens:

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero! (Yes, with the exclamation)

So what am I missing? Even an existing example similar to this would be helpful.