random quiz using xml and php

[ajna]

I am looking to make a quiz using xml and php, I want to enter 100 questions into an xml doc and have the php present them in a random order, 1 by 1 and store the answers.

I have been looking for a pre-made app or similar app, or tutorial with no luck at all. Everything involving random xml-based quizes seems to be Flash based.

My main questions before beginning on this are:

How can I grab the xml questions and answers in a random, non-repeatable fashion? Where do I store the information and check it? Sessions? Cookies? How? :bemused:

As far as the answers to the questions go, again, are these best stored in session information? At the end of the quiz I want to email the test results to a quiz admin, so want to be able to easily extract the answers, compare them to which ones are correct (XML labelling) and send it.

Any ideas or light in the dark would be appreciated.

Thanx!

[Kudose]

You could use a combination of [man]simplexml_load_file[/man], [man]array_rand[/man] and/or [man]rand[/man] to do this.

i.e.

Load the XML file into an object and select a random array set from the questions/answers portion of your from the object.

Hope that makes sense and helps.

[silent]

I actually am working on a very similar thing for my work...
What I do is something akin to this (minus the XML processing part --- I'm assuming you know how to load the questions in order...)

<?php

foreach($loaded_question as $q) {
   $random_key = mt_rand(0,2903294);
   if(isset($questions[$random_key])) {
      //do a loop to generate keys
   } else {
      $questions[$random_key] = $q;
   }
}

ksort($questions);

?>