PHP as XML integration hub

pollocks

Hi there,

Situation:

I have an application (Siebel) which needs to retrieve data from another database (Oracle). The way the integration is architected (the correct way, I think), is that Siebel spits out an XML message to a (php enabled) web server. That web server parses the request and retrieves data from the other database (via SQL) and then returns an XML message to Siebel.

Problem - how do I get started with the XML parsing and return message building?

I don't know how to parse an inbound message (which has been posted to a PHP page). Other than programatically building the XML string to return to Siebel (i.e. string=<tag><tag2>data</tag2> and so on), how would I do that too?

Any pointers will be appreciated. I've had a look at the XML functions provided natively by PHP and they don't look particularly useful.

I do, of course, have a DTD that I could feed into PHP.

cheers,

-P

jeremuck

sounds like a nice oppurtunity for SOAP.

look up nusoap on google.

You can easily create a soap server (about two lines of code with that class) to do exactly what you want.
Define a function to do what you want, add the function to the service using a command in the nusoap class and you are done.
Very excellent class.

EDIT: I found the page for you:
http://dietrich.ganx4.com/nusoap/index.php is the class's homepage

here is a simple demo to show you how easy it is.
http://dietrich.ganx4.com/nusoap/faq.php

the class will take care of encoding the data structures into XML for you.

pollocks

jeremuck,

Thanks for this tip. This sounds like a possibility however Siebel isn't flexible with its DTD and so SOAP may not be compatible (it's got a rigid DTD, right?).

I will, however, check out the URL links you've suggested to see if I can feed the class a DTD.

Thanks for the lead.

I'll post back once I've got this sorted although I've had to de-prioritise this work for now in order to concentrate on Sales.

cheers,

-P

ednark

are you sure your siebel serverdoesn't do soap... soap allows arbitrary xml to be passed... its just wrapped in some soap xml... so maybe it accepts soap and just has a rigid idea of what can be inside

as a pear enthusiast i will recommend you look at pear.php.net and search for XML_Tree

pear has an XML_Tree object, you make an xml tree, add a node, etc untill you have a dom representation of your object... then ask the Tree object to write itself as an xml string... (this gives you arbitrary flexability in your xml output and doesn't have the soap wrapper)

going the DOM way may be a little overkill for just message passing... but at least you can look over the PEAR XML_Tree object for a good example of how to implement the use of phps built in xml functions

view php's built in [man]xml[/man] functions

you might want to build your own parser and writter yourself

[edit]

problems: what type of info does your sieble server send... if it just sends an xml request or a http request with an xml message somehow posted or gettted...

if it sends straight xml you are stuck writing your own php/xml server outside of your webserver... ick

php comes with full [man]socket[/man]s support so you can just write a standalone php server that exists outside of your web directory... but as i said... ick

if your siebel can send an http request with the xml tragged along you could use your webserver to send/recieve messages... when the page gets called look at the ip address

$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']

and if it is not from your siebel server's address then do nothing... else... if it is from your server, then parse the incoming xml using php, ask databse for stufff, make results into xml, return as body of http response

pollocks

ednark,

Phew! I've now gots loads to go on....

Thanks!

I'm trying to do exactly as you say at the end of your message i.e. "...then parse the incoming xml using php, ask databse for stufff, make results into xml, return as body of http response...."

Thanks again.

I'll let you know the outcome!

-P

pollocks

Edited by Pollocks - Hey, I realise why I can't 'echo' the string to the browser. The browser is trying to interpret the data as some sort of HTML. Since it doesn't understand the tags, it ignores it.

OK, so how do I 'return' this data to the client? In ASP, this is done simply with Response.Write in working examples that I've seen. How do I do a Response.Write in PHP? Do I need to use some of the HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA or similar arrays/functions?

Hi,

OK, I'm making progress with this interface. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible so I just write XML manually.

I'm trying to do the following:

$StringToSendBack = "<siebel-xmlext-fields-ret>";
$StringToSendBack .= "<support field=\"CMD A1\"/>";
$StringToSendBack .= "<support field=\"CMD A2\"/>";
$StringToSendBack .= "<support field=\"CMD Camp Id\"/>";
$StringToSendBack .= "<support field=\"CMD Cycle Id\"/>";
$StringToSendBack .= "<support field=\"CMD Det Id\"/>";
$StringToSendBack .= "<support field=\"CMD Run Num\"/>";
$StringToSendBack .= "</siebel-xmlext-fields-ret>";

When I print $StringToSendBack using echo, print, printf, sprintf etc, it doesn't print.

I've tried escaping the < and > with a \ but that doesn't work either??

What am I doing wrong? Why is my test not showing up?? I'm simply printing this out to the browser window for now until I get the script working, then I'll let Siebel loose on it.

Cheers,

-P

Weedpacket

Easier to read (and write) might be:

$StringToSendBack = <<<EOXML
<siebel-xmlext-fields-ret>
<support field="CMD A1"/>
<support field="CMD A2"/>
<support field="CMD Camp Id"/>
<support field="CMD Cycle Id"/>
<support field="CMD Det Id"/>
<support field="CMD Run Num"/>
</siebel-xmlext-fields-ret>
EOXML;

(Just though I'd mention the possibility.)

As for the non-appearance, remember that if a browser is displaying a page sent as text/html, it will ignore any tags it doesn't recognise... "<siebel-xmlext-fields-ret>? Dunno what that is. <support>? Dunno what that is...". Just hit "View Source" (wherever your browser keeps that option).

ednark

ie6 should have built in xml viewing capabilities.....

shows a nice little collapsable tree.. however other rendering engines will not, including the mozilla rendering engine and any browsers based on it (my fav phoenix) and also opera's rendering engine

also there is a powertoy or something microsoft gives out for free called
Microsoft Xml Notepad
not quite what you asked but a neat little toy anyway

have fun coding

pollocks

Weedpacket

Well, I worked that one out too. Thanks though...I never did, however, think about doing a 'view, source'.

Would you mind explaining what the <<<EOXML stuff is all about? I've never seen that before.

Thanks!

Ednark

I reckon that IE wasn't displaying the XML because it wasn't properly formed. i.e. didn't have all the DTD stuff in it, for instance. I believe that Siebel XML is only 'well formed' and 'not valid', according to the chaps at W3C.org.

Thanks for the comments.

I've got that bit of the interface working now. Siebel didn't like my php page beacuse I'd put in html, head, body tags in it. Once I removed them so that just the PHP code remained, then Siebel chirped happily and displayed my data for me. Result!

This PHPBuilder forum is superb! If it wasn't for help from guys (and gals) like yourselves, I've have ripped out ALL of my hair by now.

Thanks very much!

jeremuck

The syntax you asked about is a heredoc.
Basically, it's a powerful way to deal with plain text because you don't have to escape any characters, and PHP is smart about where the heredoc ends.

pollocks

jeremuck

Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't noticed this in the manual. When I searched for <<<EOXML , I of course didn't find it!

I now understand that the syntax for this is <<<WHATEVER .........WHATEVER

If anyone wants to see the finished article, you ask me by posting here, otherwise I consider this thread as closed. Thanks again for all your help.

Thanks,

-P

ednark

love to see the code... sure it would help some poor schmuck down the line who searchs for XML and reads this link.. only to find to his dissapointment that the final code wasn't posted for his understanding

thehb

I would be that schmuck!

Looking for a way to receive XML and send some back actually.