PHP as XML?

[msavvy]

I'm using PHP and Sablotron to transfrom my XML using XSL. The problem is that the xslt_process() function doesn't seem to work with a .php file. I'm not sure if the problem is with the file extension or if it is a mime-type issue.

My PHP page selects data from the database and formats it into XML... Is it possible to make that PHP page return the results with an XML mime type?

[eoghain]

Yeah, set the header.

header('Content-type: text/xml');

[msavvy]

Thanks, but it looks like there is a major weakness in Sablotron... it won't allow me to use a .php file for the data input.

It works when I copy the output from the php page and save it as a .xml file, however, I get errors when I try to use the .php file directly in the xslt_process() function.

The only solution I can think of is to have my db select and xml formatting dynamically written out to a xml file, which is then called later by the xslt_process() function.

Very weak!

[eoghain]

I but there is some way to make this work. How are you making sablotron access your php page? Post the relavent sections of your code and I bet we can figure this out. Maybe by using [man]file/man.

[msavvy]

Attached php file in text format...

[eoghain]

Well at first glance I'd say that your problem is that you are using the file:// method to open your files. Using file:// will cause the file to be opened by the filesystem and not by apache. Since apache has to parse your .php file to get your XML out I'd suggest changing your code as follows and see if it works:

<?php
	// Source files
	// .xml files work, but .php files do not work
	// $xml_file = "file://c:/progra~1/apache group/apache2/htdocs/mobile/mlb/games.xml";
	$xml_file = "http://localhost/mobile/mlb/games.php";
	$xsl_file = "file://c:/progra~1/apache group/apache2/htdocs/mobile/mlb/gameday.xsl";

// Allocate a new XSLT processor & process the document
$xh = xslt_create();
$result = xslt_process($xh, $xml_file, $xsl_file);

if (!$result) {
	// Something croaked. Show the error
	echo 'XSLT processing error: ' .xslt_error($xh);
} else {
	// Output the resulting HTML
	echo $result;
}

// Destroy the XSLT processor
xslt_free($xh);
?>

This should work if xlst_process() is opening up the file through an HTTP call. If it isn't we should still be able to find a way around it. Ohh and you might have to change the URL if http://localhost/ doesn't map properly.

[msavvy]

Doesn't work and I'm not sure what you mean by changing the url if localhost isn't mapped properly.

I was under the impression that the files had to be called by thier full path. Even on linux, I usually call the files from /usr/local/apache/htdocs/...

Not positive though.

[eoghain]

Ok so the [man]xslt_process/man function won't read directly from a URL. You can still read in your data from the URL and store it in a variable and process it through [man]xslt_process[/man] from what I can gather from the manual pages here is what you need to do.

<?php 
    // Source files 
    // .xml files work, but .php files do not work 
    // $xml_file = "file://c:/progra~1/apache group/apache2/htdocs/mobile/mlb/games.xml"; 
    $xml_file = "http://localhost/mobile/mlb/games.php"; 
    $xsl_file = "file://c:/progra~1/apache group/apache2/htdocs/mobile/mlb/gameday.xsl"; 

   // Get XML from web
   $file = fopen($xml_file,"r");
   while(!feof($file))
   $xml .= fgets($file, 1024);
   fclose($file);

   // Gonna contain PHP-XML output
   $args = array('/_xml' => $xml,);


// Allocate a new XSLT processor & process the document 
$xh = xslt_create(); 
$result = xslt_process($xh, 'arg:/_xml', $xsl_file, NULL, $args); 

if (!$result) { 
    // Something croaked. Show the error 
    echo 'XSLT processing error: ' .xslt_error($xh); 
} else { 
    // Output the resulting HTML 
    echo $result; 
} 

// Destroy the XSLT processor 
xslt_free($xh); 
?> 

The changes I made here come directly from the annotated manual on php.net. You might want to read through the whole section on xml transformation.

[msavvy]

Thanks, everything seems to be working except the dynamic elements in the XML data file (.php)

I'll attach each of the files...

[msavvy]

xml data file...

[msavvy]

xsl stylesheet...

[msavvy]

The problem is that the php content that is being opened with fopen is being read in literally, rather than processing it first.

The resulting value of $arg...

args[/_xml] =<?php
header('Content-type: text/xml');
$title = "Dynamic Test";
?>
<chapter>
<title><?php echo $title; ?></title>
<para>Paragraph Text</para>
</chapter>

[eoghain]

Now from what I can tell you seem to have this file (xml.txt as posted) that is really a php script that needs to do some processing to generate the XML data that you are going to consume with another php script. If this statement is correct then to fix you problem you need to rename xml.txt to xml.php. Since the file is named .txt Apache won't send it to the PHP Processor to get run, thus you get back exactly what is in the file. As long as you call the page using [man]fopen/man and pass it a URL (http://myserver.com/xml.php) you will get the parsed data instead of the raw file. Test it by browsing to the file as it exists now, and viewing the source you'll see the full text of the file, then change the extension and browse to it again and you'll see the XML.

[msavvy]

Note, the files are .txt because this board doesn't allow .php files to be uploaded.

The xml.php (.txt) files does indeed output the correct results when hit directly, but it does not have the same result with fopen() in sablotron.php (.txt)

I also tried removing...
header('Content-type: text/xml');

[eoghain]

Your problem is here in sablotron.php:

$xml_file = "dynamictest.php"; 

Change that to:

$xml_file = "http://localhost/dynamictest.php"; 

Be sure to make the URL is correct but include everything that you would type into your browsers location bar.

[msavvy]

Thanks man, that worked!

What is the server performance hit, if any, for using fopen() to read the file, which is being accessed by its complete http path?

[Moonglobe]

well, i'd have to say that fopen is VERY slow by PHP standards, but it probably wont affect your site much if you're only running the one call per page.

[awasson]

I wonder, is any interest in this thread still?

I know it's a few months old but it pretty much parallels what I've been working on exactly. (right down to the code from php.net)

Mine wasn't working until I saw your post with this:

// Get XML from web
$file = fopen($xml_file,"r");
while(!feof($file))
$xml .= fgets($file, 1024);
fclose($file);

Thanks I was trying to use fgets() and couldn't get it to work right.

I'm still hung up on a problem
My php/xml source file is actually a reply from a remote server that is POSTed an xml message from my server using cURL. Part of the message I send is a list of products looped out of a MySQL database. My query depends on a session array and I can't seem to get it to persist.

My code is pretty much identical to yours and I've changed my variable names to reflect what you've come up with. It is as follows:

<?php  

//I NEED TO MAINTAIN THE SESSION HERE
session_start(); 

// Source files 
$xml_file = "http://localhost/dcduby/boutique/shipping_data.php";  
$xsl_file = "test.xsl";  

// Get XML from web 
$file = fopen($xml_file,"r"); 
while(!feof($file)) 
$xml .= fgets($file, 1024); 
fclose($file); 

// Gonna contain PHP-XML output 
$args = array('/_xml' => $xml,); 

// Allocate a new XSLT processor & process the document 
$xh = xslt_create();  
$result = xslt_process($xh, 'arg:/_xml', $xsl_file, NULL, $args);  

// Detect errors 
if (!$result) die('XSLT processing error: '.xslt_error($xh)); 

 // Output the resulting HTML 
 echo $result;    

// Destroy the XSLT processor 
xslt_free($xh);  
?>  

It looks to me from the results I am receiving that the query was never initated and that the message I sent with cURL was lacking the list of products. my xml is transformation is fine.

Any idea how to prevent the session from dissapearing?

Thanks
Andrew

[eoghain]

I'm lost I don't see where you are using cURL to send anything to another server.

[awasson]

Wow, that was fast.

You don't see the cURL because you're looking at the processor.

The page that's called shipping_data.php uses curl.

The code for the page is about 150 lines of code (mostly XML boilerplate with lots of comments) and I didn't want to waste all that space on the forum. I'll upload it as text if you like.

I have a working version of it:

Go here first to put an item in your shopping cart:
(this will do)
www.mailblast.org/dcduby/boutique/cart.php?new=1001

Here's the page that sends a message (cURL) and receives xml
(the querystring handles the shipping info)
www.mailblast.org/dcduby/boutique/shipping_data.php?city=&prov_state=&country=canada&postal_zip=v6c1e1

It looks a bit like this:

	
<?php

//requires my database functions 
include ('my_database_functions.php');

//Session
session_start(); 



foreach( $HTTP_GET_VARS as $key=>$value ) { 
    $$key = $value;
}

$xmlBody = ""; //BOILERPLATE XML

//GRAB MY SHOPPING LIST AND SLAP IT IN XML TAGS 
$lineItems = "                <lineItems>\n";

if( isset( $_SESSION['cart'] ) ) {

    db_connect();

    foreach ( $_SESSION['cart'] as $key=>$val ) {

    //OPEN THE DATABASE AND PULL DATA
    $product = get_product_details($key);

    $lineItems .= "                  <item>
                <quantity>" . $val . "</quantity>
                <weight>" . $product["gross"]*.001 . "</weight>
                <length>" . "23.5" . "</length>
                <width>" . "19" . "</width>
                <height>" . "5" . "</height>
                <description>" . $product["product"] . "</description>
              </item>\n";

    }

}

$lineItems .= "                </lineItems>\n";

$xmlBody .= $lineItems;

$xmlBody .= ""; //MORE BOILERPLATE XML

$myCurl = curl_init();
curl_setopt($myCurl, CURLOPT_URL,"http://206.191.4.228:30000"); 
curl_setopt($myCurl, CURLOPT_POST, 1); 
curl_setopt($myCurl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $xmlBody);
curl_exec ($myCurl);
curl_close ($myCurl);


?>	

Thats' the gist of it. It works fine in the browser and returns all sorts of data, but using the processor code I posted earlier it returns xml that is consistent to an answer that you would receive if you sent a message without the contents pulled via the database query.

The only thing I need to do is maintain the session information so that it pulls data for the <lineItems /> part of the message.

Any thoughts and thanks for that quick reply.

Andrew