[RESOLVED] Help: Displaying a limited number of topics from RSS

[Cokemonkey11]

<?php
	global $indexval;
	function startElement($parser,$tagName,$attrs){
		global $insideitem,$tag;
   			if($insideitem){
				$tag=$tagName;
			}
			elseif($tagName=="ITEM"){
       				$insideitem = true;
   			}
	}

function characterData($parser,$data){
	global $insideitem,$tag,$title,$description,$link;
	if($insideitem&&$indexVal<5){
   			switch($tag){
       			case "TITLE":
			$indexVal++;
       			$title.=$data;
       			break;

       			case "DESCRIPTION":
       			$description.=$data;
       			break;

       			case "LINK":
       			$link.=$data;
       			break;
   			}
	}
}

function endElement($parser,$tagName){
	global $insideitem,$tag,$title,$description,$link;
	if($tagName=="ITEM"&&$indexVal<5){
   			printf("<p><b><a href='%s'>%s</a></b></p>",$link,$title); //trim($link) htmlspecialchars($title)
   			printf("<p>%s</p>",$description);
   			$title="";
   			$description="";
   			$link="";
   			$insideitem=false;
 	}
}



$xml_parser=xml_parser_create(); //Create an XML parser

xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser,"startElement","endElement"); //Set the functions to handle opening and closing tags

xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser,"characterData"); //Set the function to handle blocks of character data

$fp=fopen("http://www.pixel2life.com/feeds/gimp.xml","r") //Open the XML file for reading http://www.sitepoint.com/rss.php
	or die("Error reading RSS data.");

while($data=fread($fp,4096)) //Read the XML file 4KB at a time
	xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, feof($fp)) //Parse each 4KB chunk with the XML parser created above
		or die(sprintf("XML error: %s at line %d", //Handle errors in parsing
	xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($xml_parser)),  
	xml_get_current_line_number($xml_parser)));

fclose($fp); //Close the XML file

xml_parser_free($xml_parser); //Free up memory used by the XML parser
?>

I'm trying to use a global variable to limit the number of displayed topics from an RSS feed.

Can someone explain to me what I'm doing wrong?

I'm fairly new to php.

[Desdinova]

add the global $indexVal to the globals from within the function, see if that helps.

[Weedpacket]

Yup; Desdinova's got it right. global is something you put inside a function to say that a variable used in it is global.

So you need to say that a variable is global inside every function where it is used. It's hinting that frequent use of global variables is a bad idea.

[Cokemonkey11]

<?php
	global $indexval;
	function startElement($parser,$tagName,$attrs){
		global $insideitem,$tag,$indexval;
   			if($insideitem){
				$tag=$tagName;
			}
			elseif($tagName=="ITEM"){
       				$insideitem = true;
   			}
	}

function characterData($parser,$data){
	global $insideitem,$tag,$title,$description,$link,$indexval;
	if($insideitem&&$indexVal<5){
   			switch($tag){
       			case "TITLE":
			$indexVal++;
       			$title.=$data;
       			break;

       			case "DESCRIPTION":
       			$description.=$data;
       			break;

       			case "LINK":
       			$link.=$data;
       			break;
   			}
	}
}

function endElement($parser,$tagName){
	global $insideitem,$tag,$title,$description,$link,$indexval;
	if($tagName=="ITEM"&&$indexVal<5){
   			printf("<p><b><a href='&#37;s'>%s</a></b></p>",$link,$title); //trim($link) htmlspecialchars($title)
   			printf("<p>%s</p>",$description);
   			$title="";
   			$description="";
   			$link="";
   			$insideitem=false;
 	}
}



$xml_parser=xml_parser_create(); //Create an XML parser

xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser,"startElement","endElement"); //Set the functions to handle opening and closing tags

xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser,"characterData"); //Set the function to handle blocks of character data

$fp=fopen("http://www.pixel2life.com/feeds/gimp.xml","r") //Open the XML file for reading http://www.sitepoint.com/rss.php
	or die("Error reading RSS data.");

while($data=fread($fp,4096)) //Read the XML file 4KB at a time
	xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, feof($fp)) //Parse each 4KB chunk with the XML parser created above
		or die(sprintf("XML error: %s at line %d", //Handle errors in parsing
	xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($xml_parser)),  
	xml_get_current_line_number($xml_parser)));

fclose($fp); //Close the XML file

xml_parser_free($xml_parser); //Free up memory used by the XML parser
?>

That didn't seem to fix it.

[Desdinova]

Do keep the capitals in mind 😉
you're checking the value of indexVVVal (capital V) but your global is indexval (no capital)

[Cokemonkey11]

That fixed it! Thank you very much.