global variable: why doesn't this work?

[mayonaise]

forgive me if this is just a simple newb question.. this is part of code to parse an XML document. the XML parsing seems to be working perfectly fine thus far... i'm having a problem with global variables:

$id = "US";
....

function startElement($parser, $tagName, $attrs) {
  global $id;
  echo "ID: ".$id."<BR>";
......
}

all this does is print out:
ID:
ID:
ID:
...

any idea why this is happening? i've also tried using the $GLOBALS["id"]; format, but still no luck.. 🙁

thanks a lot

[laserlight]

No idea, I've used global variables that way with no problem.

Make a small, separate test and see if you face any problems when calling startElement() directly rather than as a callback.

[mayonaise]

Originally posted by laserlight
No idea, I've used global variables that way with no problem.

Make a small, separate test and see if you face any problems when calling startElement() directly rather than as a callback.

hmm, the small test works.. that's interesting. i'm not clear at all on the way callback functions work in PHP.. is there a reason this doesn't work? any way i can fix it?

thanks!

[laserlight]

You might need to do a re-write, or perhaps attach a copy of the script in this forum.

[mayonaise]

the part of PHP code i referred to (with altered variable names) is
$lang = "US";
...
global $lang;

php code:

<?php

include_once("menus.php");
$xml_file = "menu.xml";

$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();

xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, "startElement", "endElement");
xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, "charData");

$fp = fopen($xml_file, "r")
	or die("Error opening XML file");

while ($data = fread($fp, 4096))
{
	xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, feof($fp))
		or die(sprintf("XML error: %s at line %d", xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($xml_parser)), xml_get_current_line_number($xml_parser)));
}

fclose($fp);
xml_parser_free($xml_parser);

$lang = "US";
$insideMenu = false;
$insideItem = false;
$tag = "";
$title = "";
$section = "";
$page = "";
$menuId = "";
$itemId = "";

function startElement($parser, $tagName, $attrs)
{
	global $insideMenu, $insideItem, $tag, $menuId, $itemId;
	global $lang;
	echo "country: ".$lang."<BR>";
	// echo "insideMenu: ".$insideMenu."<BR>";
	//echo "found {$tagName}<BR>";
	if ($insideMenu)
	{
		if ($tag == $lang)
		{
			//echo "found ".$tag."<BR>";
			$tag .= "*".$tagName;
		}
		else
			$tag = $tagName;

	if ($tagName == "ITEM")
	{
		$insideItem = true;
		$itemId = $attrs["id"];
	}
}
else if ($tagName == "MENU")
{
	$insideMenu = true;
	$menuId = $attrs["name"];
}
}

function charData($parser, $data)
{
	global $insideMenu, $insideItem, $tag, $title, $section, $page, $ID;
	//echo "tag: ".$tag."<BR>";
	if ($insideMenu)
	{
		if ($insideItem)
		{
			switch ($tag)
			{
				case "SHORT":
					echo "SHORT<BR>";
					break;
				case "LONG":
					break;
				case "SHORT*US":
					echo $data."<BR>";
					break;
			}
		}
		else
		{
			switch ($tag)
			{
				case "TITLE" :
					$title = $data;
					break;
			}
		}
	}
}

function endElement($parser, $tagName)
{
	global $insideItem, $insideMenu;
	//echo "end tag {$tagName}<BR>";
	if ($tagName == "ITEM")
	{
		$insideItem = false;
	}
	else if ($tagName == "MENU")
		$insideMenu = false;
}


?>

xml sample:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<menus>
	<menu name="home">
		<title>Home</title>
		<item id="home">
			<short>
				<us>home</us>
				<tw></tw>
			</short>
		</item>
		<item id="news">
			<short>
				<us>news</us>
				<tw></tw>
			</short>
		</item>
		<item id="contact">
			<section>about</section>
			<short>
				<us>contact</us>
				<tw></tw>
			</short>
			<long>
				<us>contact us</us>
				<tw></tw>
			</long>
		</item>
	</menu>
</menus>

[laserlight]

I see.

Check that error_reporting is set to E_ALL in php.ini for debugging purposes.

You appear to be declaring your variables after you use them.
In PHP4 (and PHP5), you can declare functions after you use them.

However, variables must be declared before you use them.

xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, "startElement", "endElement");
is the line in which you use those variables.
You dont see it, but it is the case, since startElement() uses them.

You can read a definition of a callback function

[mayonaise]

wow, that sure was a simple solution.. thanks!!