Use PHP forms to generate XML files

joshludwig

Hello,

I would like to use forms in a PHP file to generate XML files. Each form field should create its own tags with the user input data inside.

I've searched and read the forums here and on other sites, but I can't seem to come up with a straight method for executing this.

Could anyone point me in the right direction?

azunoman

You want to generate XML but want to do it in an organized way instead of using print and loops. Use PHP's DOM XML extension to create a DOM object; then, call dump_mem( ) or dump_file( ) to generate a well-formed XML document.

For DOM parsing, PHP uses libxml, developed for the Gnome project. You can download it from http://www.xmlsoft.org. To activate it, configure PHP with --with-dom.

joshludwig

azunoman, thanks for your reply. I checked out http://www.xmlsoft.org and it seems to be a powerful tool, but I am afraid that this is all a bit over my head. I guess that is why I posted this in the Newbies category.

Can you please point to a more detailed explanation of the method that you outlined?

Thanks!

azunoman

http://www.active-link.com/software/

joshludwig

This works brilliantly.

Thank you SO much, azunoman.

nunomira

I tried example 1: http://www.active-link.com/software/iorca/example.php

// include a class-loading function
require_once("classes/include.php");

// import XML and XMLDocument classes
import("org.active-link.xml.XML");
import("org.active-link.xml.XMLDocument");


$myXML = new XML("PREFERENCES");

$myXML->setTagContent("Blue", "PREFERENCES/COLORSCHEME");
$myXML->setTagContent("Motif", "PREFERENCES/ICONS");

$myXML->setTagContent("", "PREFERENCES/NEWS/HEADLINES");

but now I have no idea how to print the xml they show:

<PREFERENCES>
	<COLORSCHEME>Blue</COLORSCHEME>
	<ICONS>Motif</ICONS>
	<NEWS>
		<HEADLINES />
	</NEWS>
</PREFERENCES>

joshludwig

the XML is now an object. You can save it out to a file by looking at Example four.

add the below to you code:

$myXMLDoc = new XMLDocument();


$myXMLDoc->setXML($myXML);


$myXMLDoc->save("example.xml");

and you will have a document called example.xml with the code inside

nunomira

you've been a great help, thanks!

following that, I got to this:

$myXMLDoc = new XMLDocument(); 

$myXMLDoc->setXML($myXML); 

$finalXML = $myXMLDoc->getXMLString();

echo (htmlspecialchars ($finalXML));