PHP Screen scrape to XML help!

MattTrout

Hello everyone,

I need some help with a PHP screen scrape to XML. I already have the scrape working and I am taking the data and making a new DOM doc and exporting the data as XML.

The data is a schedule and the way I am doing it now makes a node for each game.

What I am having some trouble doing is separating each game by the month it is in. Below is a sample of the XML structure...

<Schedule>
<Game>
<Date>October 2009</Date>
<Visitor><Visitor/>
<Home><Home/>
<Time><Time/>
<Results><Results/>
</Game>
<Game>
<Date>Fri Oct 3</Date>
<Visitor>Visiting Team<Visitor/>
<Home>Home Team<Home/>
<Time>TheTime<Time/>
<Results><Results/>
</Game>
</Schedule>

Notice how the the one game node has the month October 2009 in it....this is what I would like...

<Schedule>
<Month>October 2009
<Game>
<Date>Fri Oct 3</Date>
<Visitor>Visiting Team<Visitor/>
<Home>Home Team<Home/>
<Time>TheTime<Time/>
<Results><Results/>
</Game>
</Month>
</Schedule>

Here is my code....I have tried using if statements to analyze the month and if it is to append a new node and put the game node inside the month. Just need some direction to open to all comments! Thanks!

$schedule = $doc->createElement( "Schedule" );
$doc->appendChild( $schedule );

	foreach( $regular_season as $reg_season )
	{
			$game = $doc->createElement( "Game" );

			$date = $doc->createElement( "Date" );
			$date->appendChild(
			$doc->createTextNode( $reg_season[0])
			);
			$game->appendChild( $date );

			$visitor = $doc->createElement( "Visitor" );
			$visitor->appendChild(
			$doc->createTextNode( $reg_season[1] )
			);
			$game->appendChild( $visitor );

			$home = $doc->createElement( "Home" );
			$home->appendChild(
			$doc->createTextNode( $reg_season[2] )
			);
			$game->appendChild( $home );

			$time = $doc->createElement( "Time" );
			$time->appendChild(
			$doc->createTextNode( $reg_season[3] )
			);
			$game->appendChild( $time );

			$networkResults = $doc->createElement( "Results" );
			$networkResults->appendChild(
			$doc->createTextNode( $reg_season[4] )
			);
			$game->appendChild( $networkResults );

			$schedule->appendChild( $game );
	}

jaql

<schedule>
  <year num="2009">
    <month name="October">
      <date year="2009" month="10" day="03">
        <game>
          <visitor></visitor>
          <home></home>
          <time></time>
          <results></results>
        </game>
      </date>
      <date year="2009" month="10" day="02">
        <game>
          <visitor></visitor>
          <home></home>
          <time></time>
          <results></results>
        </game>
      </date>
    </month>
    <month name="September">
      <date year="2009" month="09" day="28">
        <game>
          <visitor></visitor>
          <home></home>
          <time></time>
          <results></results>
        </game>
      </date>
      <date year="2009" month="09" day="26">
        <game>
          <visitor></visitor>
          <home></home>
          <time></time>
          <results></results>
        </game>
      </date>
    </month>
  </year>
</schedule>

Maybe format the XML like this? Or something like this?

I dunno about you, but having all that stuff wrapped in a month tag with a "October 2009" hanging around after <month> kind of annoys me.

Also, how are you scraping this information?

MattTrout

Yeah I don't really want to format it like that just have each game under the particular month. I'm using this xml in an iphone application and it'll be more work than it needs to be.

I'm scraping the information using this class I found made be Troy Wolf

http://www.troywolf.com/articles/php/class_http/

Basically scrapes it into an array and I'm using a foreach loop to create each xml node.

Would I would like is to evaluate where in the array the Date returns the month and then until the loop encounters the next month to put each game underneath that month. Given the way the information is returned, I'm having some trouble thinking about how this could be done.

jaql

MattTrout;10930520 wrote:
Yeah I don't really want to format it like that just have each game under the particular month. I'm using this xml in an iphone application and it'll be more work than it needs to be.

I'm scraping the information using this class I found made be Troy Wolf

http://www.troywolf.com/articles/php/class_http/

Basically scrapes it into an array and I'm using a foreach loop to create each xml node.

Would I would like is to evaluate where in the array the Date returns the month and then until the loop encounters the next month to put each game underneath that month. Given the way the information is returned, I'm having some trouble thinking about how this could be done.

Whats your array look like?

johanafm

MattTrout;10930520 wrote:
Yeah I don't really want to format it like that just have each game under the particular month. I'm using this xml in an iphone application and it'll be more work than it needs to be.

It does have that. If you prefer to have it as a direct child of the month, then

<month name="November">
	<game>
		<date>...</date>
		...
	</game>
	<game>
		<date>...</date>
		...
	</game>
</month
etc

MattTrout

jaql;10930550 wrote:
Whats your array look like?

Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => October 2009
)

[1] => Array
    (
        [0] => Date
        [1] => Visitor
        [2] => Home
        [3] => Time (ET)
        [4] => TV Network/Results
    )

[2] => Array
    (
        [0] => Fri Oct 2, 2009
        [1] => Visiting Team
        [2] => Home Team
        [3] => 7:30 PM
        [4] => A Channel
    )

)

Array is big but just to give you an example...see how the month is returned in the [0]...is there a way that I could evaluate if for instance [0][0] is a month and then add a <month> tag and put the games in the month in it?

MattTrout

johanafm;10930552 wrote:
It does have that. If you prefer to have it as a direct child of the month, then
<month name="November">
	<game>
		<date>...</date>
		...
	</game>
	<game>
		<date>...</date>
		...
	</game>
</month
etc

Oh my mistake...makes sense

Richard_William

Here is a small script.

# Script MonthDate.txt
var str xml, month
cat "C:/file.xml" > $xml
while ( { sen -r -c "^<Game\>&<Date\>&</Date\>&<Visitor\>;<Visitor/\>&</Game\>^" $xml } > 0 )
do
    stex -r -c "]^<Game\>&<Date\>&</Date\>&<Visitor\>;<Visitor/\>&</Game\>^"  $xml
    sal -r -c "^Game^" "Month" $xml > null ; sal -r -c "^Game^" "Month" $xml > null
done
echo $xml

The script repeatedly checks for Game nodes that have no visitor (regular expression: <visitor>;<visitor/> - basically, there are no printable chars in the node - can have newlines, etc.). Then replaces each Game node to Month node. This is not exactly what you wanted to do, but it can be a start. The documentation for the sen (string enumerator), stex (string extractor) and sal (string alterer) commands is at http://www.biterscripting.com/helppages_editors.html

Script is in biterscripting. Save the script in file C:/Scripts/MonthDate.txt, run the script by entering the following command.

script MonthDate.txt