PHP=>XML=>PHP=>javascript

[joel426]

to start with the routine is like the title.

Upload file to the server (pictures) it will use the $timestamp = time(); to create a folder to hold all the pictures and using the same $timestamp to create a xml file.

$xml_file = $timestamp.".xml"

the structure of the xml file is like this:

<album title="$title">
<picture>
<name>$name</name>
<size>$size</size>
<caption>$caption</caption>
<picture>
<picture>
<name>$name</name>
<size>$size</size>
<caption>$caption</caption>
<picture>
......//and more pictures
</album>
all this file will store in "./image/gallery/info" so I dont have to look every where.
This part I have done it beautifully :-)

Now part 2:
using PHP to search the top image folder to find out how many albums there

$folder = "./image/gallery/info";
$handle = dir($folder)
$i=0;
while ($file = $handle->read)
{
if (($file!=".") && ($file!=".."))
{
$xml_file[$i]=$file;
}
$i++;
}

this part done beautifully again.

then using PHP SAX to read thourgh the files

I save you with the code because its really common way just parsing the whole lot etc etc.

And again I have done it.

trouble begins.

I try so many different way to pack the data into one single array.

$main_album_info = array();

this array will contain
1. the title name;
2. all the pictures info;
so one more array $picture_info;

I end up with a six level nest array.
like this

$main_album_info
--> $album_info
----> $album_title
------> $picture_name
--------> $picture_size
---------->$picture_caption

really messy!!!

I already using the time stamp to save me one more nest (I almost can claim that reward from wrox by doing a 10 nest array chains ;-)

Now the question is how can I simpify this whole thing because one could pack and unpack the whole thing but it's really messy and the code are not exactly easy to read and maintain.

cos the next step is I will using the unpack info to build a javascript slideshow.If I can't find a better and simple way to pack and unpack the info in and out from xml files will be ... really sucks.

Any idea guys???
I have think about using database instead but the trouble is I am building two different client side one is DHTML and the other one is Flash that's why I use XML to store the info in the first place. And by doing this I can start learning how to parse xml file using PHP because the next thing I will do is using xml to inteact with other languages (python, java, perl etc)

Thanks in advance.

[joel426]

Hi every body.

seems like no body can answer my question here. So I update my solution.

If anybody has read my script and attempt to use it.

It works beautifully :-) But it return a huge nesting Array which very hard to take it apart to use.

So what I did was instead of nesting array. I return 6 different array. And they work just like that.

Now I am moving on writing this whole thing into a class. But strange thing happened. If I use it as a class it works fine. But once I sperate them into a class and create new class (I call it deCodeXML)

become like

newDeCodeXML = new deCodeXML();

it doesn't work anymore all the array return become not array or not object!!!!

Any idea????

If anybody interested email me directly I will send you a cut down version of the script.

Will be very useful if you can get a grip on it. Because I alter it to use a XML file to create not only PhotoAlbum info Now it become MP3album info as well as a menu system.

The reasons like I said before I will use it cross platform and cross applications.

Cheers and I hope someone out there get this message.

joel426

[e-mail]