PHP/XML Help: Warning: join(): Bad arguments

[jjfletch]

I'm parsing an XML file and displaying the results, but when I try to display the storeURL, I keep getting the Warning: join(): Bad arguments error. I'm hoping someone can help me out here as I'm really in a jam. Thanks much.

Here's a snippet from the XML file:

-	productSearch
	- <header>
	<offset>1</offset>
	<numShops>22</numShops>
	<searchTime>210</searchTime>
	<numTotalResults>22173</numTotalResults>
	</header>

- <resultList nbResults="20">

	- <result>
	  <Title>A Sample Title</Title>
	  <storeName>Safeway</storeName>
	  <price>75</price>
	  - <storeURL>
	    http://www.safeway.com/
	    </storeURL>
	  <brand>Generic Brand</brand>
	  </result>

And here's the code:

class StoreList {
        var $parser;
        var $record;
        var $current_field;
        var $field_type;
        var $ends_record;
        var $records;

    function StoreList ($filename) {
    $this ->parser = xml_parser_create();
    xml_set_object($this->parser, &$this);
    xml_set_element_handler($this->parser, 'start_element', 'end_element');
    xml_set_character_data_handler($this->parser, 'cdata');

// 1 = single field, 2 = array field
    $this->field_type=array('Title' => 1,
                            'storeName' => 1,
                            'price' => 1,
                            'storeURL' => 2,
                            'description' => 1,
                            'brand' => 1);

    $this->ends_record = array('result' => true);

    $x = join("", file($filename));
    xml_parse($this->parser, $x);
    xml_parser_free($this->parser);

    }

    function start_element($p, $element, &$attributes) {
    $element = strtolower($element);
    if ($this->field_type[$element] != 0) {
            $this->current_field = $element;
    } else {
            $this->current_field = '';
    }

    }

    function end_element ($p, $element) {
    $element = strtolower($element);
    if ($this->ends_record[$element]) {
            $this->records[] = $this->record;
            $this->record = array();
    }
    $this->current_field = '';
    }

    function cdata ($p, $text) {
    if ($this->field_type[$this->current_field] === 2) {
    $this->record[$this->current_field][] = $text;
    } elseif ($this->field_type[$this->current_field] === 1) {
    $this->record[$this->current_field] .= $text;
    }
    }

    function show_menu() {
    foreach ($this->records as $store) {
    echo "<tr>";
    $storeURLs = join(', ', $store['storeURL']);
    print(        
            "<td>".$store['Title']."</td>".
            "<td>".$store['brand']."</td>".
            "<td>".$store['storeName']."</td>".
            "<td>".$store['price']."</td>".
            "<td>".$storeURL."</td>"

    );
    echo "</tr>\n";
    }
    echo "</table>\n";
    }
}
        echo "<table class=\"xmlresults\">\n";
        echo "<tr><td>Title</td>
                <td>brand</td>
                <td>Store</td>
                <td>Price</td>
                <td>storeURL</td></tr>";
        $my_library = new StoreList ("http://path/to/xml/storefile.xml");
        $my_library->show_menu();
        echo "</table>";

Can someone help?

[Weedpacket]

So, which join is it? I'm guessing the second (the first could be replaced by [man]get_file_contents[/man], incidentally). Have you checked the value of $store['storeURL'] to make sure it's an array?

[jjfletch]

Hi, thanks for replying.

Yes, it's the second join that's giving me problems. In the first iteration, I did try to call the storeURL as I did everything else, namely:

        function show_menu() {
        foreach ($this->records as $store) {
        echo "<tr>";
        print(        

                "<td>".$store['Title']."</td>".
                "<td>".$store['brand']."</td>".
                "<td>".$store['storeName']."</td>".
                "<td>".$store['price']."</td>".
                "<td>".$store['storeURL']."</td>"

    );
    echo "</tr>\n";
    }
    echo "</table>\n";
    }

(After having changed the value to 1 in the previous portion of code)

I thought that would work (initially), and it does output results, but doesn't appear to pick up the value for the storeURL... in other words, it prints out all of the rows but the cell for storeURL is always blank.

I can't help but think it has something to do with the fact that the storeURL is a dropdown, and that (for a reason I can't for the life of me figure out) is why it's returning blank values when I try to call it as I've called everything else.

The XML looks like this:

          - <result>
            <Title>A Sample Title</Title>
            <storeName>Safeway</storeName>
            <price>75</price>
            - <storeURL>
              http://www.safeway.com/
              </storeURL>
            <brand>Generic Brand</brand>
            </result>

I think if it looked like this:

          - <result>
            <Title>A Sample Title</Title>
            <storeName>Safeway</storeName>
            <price>75</price>
            - <storeURL>
              <storeURL2>http://www.safeway.com/</storeURL2>
              </storeURL>
            <brand>Generic Brand</brand>
            </result>

Then I could call it like everything else, but since the http:// part isn't stored within a tag that isn't collapsible, it doesn't work. But, I can't figure out why it won't work, or what I'd need to change. Or maybe I'm way off?

Can anyone shed some light? I'm really at a loss here... 😕

[Weedpacket]

Ah, then. I think your cdata() function might be wonky:

 function cdata ($p, $text) {
        if ($this->field_type[$this->current_field] === 2) {
        $this->record[$this->current_field][] = $text;
        } elseif ($this->field_type[$this->current_field] === 1) {
        $this->record[$this->current_field] .= $text;
        }
        } 

Maybe replace that "= $text" with ".= $text". Or - perhaps better yet - don't treat a <StoreURL> element as any different from any of those other elements (what's the difference between "type 2" and "type 1"? The code says "single field" and "array field", but in the XML there's no apparent difference. But that may be the fault of whatever you're using to cut-and-paste this XML text - the same thing that's putting all those hyphens in.)

[jjfletch]

Actually, I had tried both of those suggestions already. First, I changed the first = $text to .= text, but that generated the same "Bad Arguments" error. Then, I tried setting it to type 1 and calling it as I called all the others, and that's when it output information to the screen, but didn't find any values for the storeURL.

I'm still thinking that because the storeURL is collapsible, it's causing problems, but I don't know why it would. It seems odd to me that this would be such a big deal.

Am I barking up the wrong tree? Does anyone else see a problem with that?

[Weedpacket]

"Collapsable"? Your XML viewer is only drawing it that way because the opening and closing tags are on different lines 🙂 but if I understand rightly, each line of the character data results in a separate call to the character data handler. So it gets called three times for that element; the first and last times it's with an empty string. Oh, and you're creating a variable called $storeURLs, but trying to echo the value of $storeURL. Developing your code with error reporting set to E_ALL will help catch mistakes like that.

I also notice that cdata() is never called when $this->field_type[$this->current_field] equals 2. In fact, that variable is usually empty. In fact, $this->current_field is usually empty, and the only values it does take are "price" and "brand". Which is suspicious - they're the only ones with lowercase names. And in both start_element() and end_element() there is a line

$element = strtolower($element);

which starts looking highly dodgy. And setting the parser option

xml_parser_set_option($this->parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, false);

when you're constructing it will help, as well.

But the thing is, the content of the <storeURL> element is going to be a string like all the others - there's nothing in the XML to indicate that it contains anything else. What will make it an array? Linebreaks in the character data? Multiple <storeURL> elements? I'm hoping the latter.

[jjfletch]

Genius! Is that your first or middle name?

I did change storeURL to storeurl and it worked. So, shame on me for not seeing it, and thank you for pointing it out.

I just love it when Weedpacket responds to my threads. You always have an answer... the right one too. Thanks! 🙂