simple Reading/Writing XML (quick answer!)

andrew_embassy

Ok- so I'm sure this is just part of the learning curve, but I've got a really simple thing I'm trying to do and I don't think I'm grasping the method here:

I have an existing xml document, (staff.xml) and I want to write to it using php.

So I open it up, [ $xStaff = DomDocument::load('staff.xml'); ] and I'm trying to figure out how to put a new <person> element in there. I tried just going:

$person = $xStaff->createElement('person');
$person = $staff->appendChild($person);

but $staff hadn't been recognized as an element yet- so I was messing around with the 'importNode()' and getElementByName(); functions but I don't think I was doing those right either.

Anybody got a quick answer for me?

atokatim

well, i had the same problem, but i used the fread, fwrite and fclose commands to write to the file. it is really picky though....to add a new line, you need to put a /n at the end of your line.

here is some code that i used to write to an XML file....

if (!$file_handle = fopen($file,"w")) { echo "Cannot open file"; }
$data = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>';
$dataspace = "\n";
$data1 = '<songs>';
fwrite($file_handle, $data);
fwrite($file_handle, $dataspace);
fwrite($file_handle, $data1);
fwrite($file_handle, $dataspace);

fclose($file_handle);

good luck!

Tim

http://www.Mp3Profiles.com

andrew_embassy

Yeah- I know I can write XML via standard ways- and I guess I could just open it and put the pointer at the end of the file, delete the last element, but any kind of really in-depth editing where you're going back and becomes really difficult. I guess you just have to pull it out as an array, then have your way with it and write the XML file anew? This can't be right, but it seems like the only way to do it right now-

andrew_embassy

bump?

There has GOT to be a better way of doing this- but there seems to be a million ways of interacting with XML via PHP- which is best? Why is what should be so simple so obtuse?

Weedpacket

Don't bump. It's considered rude.

$person = $xStaff->createElement('person');
$person = $staff->appendChild($person);

The second line doesn't make a lot of sense. What, after all, is $staff supposed to be? Where in the XML document do you want to append the new element? As a child of the root element? Wouldn't that be

$person = $xStaff->createElement('person');
$person = $xStaff->appendChild($person);

andrew_embassy

Weedpacket wrote:
Don't bump. It's considered rude.
$person = $xStaff->createElement('person');
$person = $staff->appendChild($person); 
The second line doesn't make a lot of sense. What, after all, is $staff supposed to be? Where in the XML document do you want to append the new element? As a child of the root element? Wouldn't that be
$person = $xStaff->createElement('person');
$person = $xStaff->appendChild($person);
?

I'm not surprised that the second line doesn't make sense, as I've been trying to make sense of the thing for three days now, and I've been baffled at how elusive this answer has been. $staff was supposed to refer to the root element- the XML is

When I try this:

$person = $xStaff->createElement('person');
$person = $xStaff->appendChild($person);

I get XML like this:

I just want to stick that person into the staff tags. But I can't seem to select the staff node to append the new person tag into...

Thanks for the help...

Weedpacket

OH, well in that case the missing line (that specifies the value of $staff) is

$staff = $xStaff->firstChild;

$xStaff is a DOMDocument; the <staff> entity is its first (and, to be valid, only) DOMElement.

andrew_embassy

Weedpacket wrote:
OH, well in that case the missing line (that specifies the value of $staff) is
$staff = $xStaff->firstChild;
$xStaff is a DOMDocument; the <staff> entity is its first (and, to be valid, only) DOMElement.

!!!

Thank you. 3 days of trying to figure it out. I swear I had tried that at some point but I must have had some syntax wrong. Thank you again.

Weedpacket

(Oh, and instead of firstChild, I should have said documentElement). But even the manual describes the latter as a "convenience".

andrew_embassy

awesome, thanks.