[RESOLVED] commenting out ?> for xml?

[Chizzad]

hello,

quick stupid question. i am creating an RSS 2.0 feed which is php generated. but when i add the <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> at the top PHP obviously reads the ?> as a closure for it. How can I comment that out but still have it print correctly to the rss file?

Thanks much
Chad

[laserlight]

but when i add the <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> at the top PHP obviously reads the ?> as a closure for it.

That's not obvious. I suggest providing an example of the output that is causing your problems, as well as the code that generated it. Make the code and output and as simple as possible.

[Chizzad]

ok.. below is the code.. the file is named feed.rss and i have allowed via htaccess rss to include php code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<rss version="2.0">

<channel>

<title>..</title>
<description>..</description>
<lastBuildDate>..</lastBuildDate>
<language>en-us</language>


<?php

$dbh=mysql_connect ("localhost", "DBuser", "password")
	or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db ("mDB");

$postCount = "23";

//read information in Post table cells	
do {
	$queryPost = "SELECT * FROM blog";
	$resultPost = mysql_query($queryPost) or die("Post Query failed");

	while ($linePost = mysql_fetch_array($resultPost, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
		if($linePost[id] == $postCount) {
			$postCount--;
			?>
            <item>
            	<title><?php echo $linePost[title]; ?></title>
                <pubDate><?php echo $linePost[date]; ?></pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[<?php echo $linePost[body]; ?>]]></description>
            </item>
			<?php
            }
		}
	}while($postCount > 0);
?>

</channel>

</rss>

the error that i am getting is

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/chad1/public_html/feed.rss on line 1

i have also tried using php to write the first line as below.

<?php
echo "<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" \?>";
?>

and

<?php
echo "<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" /?>";
?>

but still i can't figure out how to get that to display correctly.

thanks for the quick reply.

chad

[laserlight]

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/chad1/public_html/feed.rss on line 1

Note the line 1. I daresay you have short_open_tag enabled in php.ini. Set it to off and restart the webserver. The problem is not the closing ?> , but the opening <?

but still i can't figure out how to get that to display correctly.

It should be:

<?php
echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>';
?>

[Chizzad]

hmm.. is there another way? i am on a hosted server and don't have immediate access to php.ini and in the past it has been a laborious process to get them to change it.

thanks again for the quick reply!

[laserlight]

hmm.. is there another way? i am on a hosted server and don't have immediate access to php.ini and in the past it has been a laborious process to get them to change it.

You would have to exclude the prolog:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

EDIT:
It came to mind that perhaps there is another way, namely to print the XML prolog using PHP, as you have tried earlier. But if you include a file that has the XML prolog...

[Chizzad]

sweet.. that works perfect.

thanks much again!