Working with XML within PHP

[RevDisk]

Anyone do any PHP work?  Trying to read in info from an XML but I'm having a heck of a time. 

[CNYCacher]

Hi there!

[RevDisk]

Hi there!

Heyo there!

Alright, suppose I have a fairly simple XML file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<ServerInfo>
<host>Something</host>
<time>SomethingElse</time>
</ServerInfo>

Could you give me an example of how to display the short example in PHP?  Every single example I've hunted has a loop and overly nested structure that I don't need or want.  I've been trying a bunch of different things to try to get it working and think I'm missing something.  I'll probably break down and just buy a couple books on XML as there's few good online resources I've found. 


(Real XML file is at http://revdisk.org/sm.xml , generated from a shell script. Work in progress)

[Nick1911]

You sir, need to become acquainted with the document object model, or DOM.

http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_xml_dom.asp

[Nick1911]

Here, this should get you started: 


<?php
/* Constructor */
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();

/* Load the doc into memory */
$xmlDoc->load("sm.xml");

/* Parse that sucker.  x = array of server*/
$x = $xmlDoc->getElementsByTagName("server");

/* Loop through each server*/
foreach ($x AS $item)   
  {
    /* (There's probably a better way to do this!  RTFM) */

    /* Get all hosts */
    $hosts = $item->getElementsByTagName("host");

    /* Get first host */
    $host = $hosts->item(0)->nodeValue;

    echo $host;
  }
?>

[CNYCacher]

Sorry to jump in then leave you hangin like that.  Got distracted.

Nick is on the right path, but PHP's SimpleXML class might be a better and easier way to go.

I'm PMing you an example I did recently

[Nick1911]

Sorry to jump in then leave you hangin like that.  Got distracted.

Nick is on the right path, but PHP's SimpleXML class might be a better and easier way to go.

I'm PMing you an example I did recently

Ohh, I like that.  If you're going to use a dynamically typed language, might as well take advantage of that.

[RevDisk]

IT IS ALIVE!

I forgot a critical step.  Sacrificed a goat to the Elder Gods, burned a copy of "The Art of Unix Programming", and chanting "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" for a while

Live:      http://revdisk.org/server.php
Source:  http://revdisk.org/server.txt
XML:      http://revdisk.org/sm.xml
Script:    http://revdisk.org/sm.sh

[CNYCacher]

Source:  http://revdisk.org/server.txt

Do liek dees:

cd /path/to/webroot
ln -s server.php server.phps

[roo_ster]

Anybody care to enlighten me as to why one would use php or python if perl is available?  Gotta be a reason.

I am not sure about php or python, but perl is really, really fast when I am crunching number & parsing text.

[RevDisk]

Do liek dees:

cd /path/to/webroot
ln -s server.php server.phps

Na.  I have a bunch more things I gotta do to finish up the site.  I'll set up an automated tar script in crontab.  Or whatever.php?=viewsource ?   Na, tar.  

Script should update every 10 minutes.  Looks like it's working

Anybody care to enlighten me as to why one would use php or python if perl is available?  Gotta be a reason.

I am not sure about php or python, but perl is really, really fast when I am crunching number & parsing text.

You're entirely correct.  I just want more practice with PHP webapps.  I'll eventually port over to perl, python and anything else I can find.   Next is PHP webapp with SQL backend.

[GigaBuist]

Anybody care to enlighten me as to why one would use php or python if perl is available?  Gotta be a reason.

The nice thing about PHP is it comes with a pretty big library of functions baked right in.  With Perl (and Python) you're going to have to hunt them down, figure out which one you want, install them, and then get to reading their individual documentation.  PHP just gets you one stop shopping for, oh, 90% of the things a web developer is going to want to do in the course of a day.

Plus, with Perl, you always have the potential problem of writing something that you can't read again.  eg:  while(<>) { print; }

[roo_ster]

The nice thing about PHP is it comes with a pretty big library of functions baked right in.  With Perl (and Python) you're going to have to hunt them down, figure out which one you want, install them, and then get to reading their individual documentation.  PHP just gets you one stop shopping for, oh, 90% of the things a web developer is going to want to do in the course of a day.

Plus, with Perl, you always have the potential program of writing something that you can't read again.  eg:  while(<>) { print; }

 

Yeah, the perl I write is deliberately staid.

[CNYCacher]

Na.  I have a bunch more things I gotta do to finish up the site.  I'll set up an automated tar script in crontab.  Or whatever.php?=viewsource ?   Na, tar.  

I'm just showing you a better way to show off the code, instead of a .txt file.
.phps files are php code, but Apache displays them and inserts html font tags for format highlighting instead of invoking the PHP interpretter and running the script.

Make a symlink named .phps to your actual .php file, and you can show off the live code (like the example I sent you).

[RevDisk]

I'm just showing you a better way to show off the code, instead of a .txt file.
.phps files are php code, but Apache displays them and inserts html font tags for format highlighting instead of invoking the PHP interpretter and running the script.

Make a symlink named .phps to your actual .php file, and you can show off the live code (like the example I sent you).

Yea, gathered onto that trick a couple years ago.  A persistent link is live.  That's what I'm intentionally avoiding. 



Meh.  Fine fine, I'll find some need for a perl script and do that.  I was in the middle of PHP arrays, but eh.  Perl is probably more my spec.  Mind you, my background is C/C++ and shell scripts.   Some of these new fangled "languages" I'm not overly partial to as they're built for ease of use over clean architecture.  Like PHP being seemingly unable to use XML without a loop.  That STILL drives me up a wall.  That is bad design.  Easy to use, sure, for 95% of situations, but Gods alone will be able to help you that remaining 5%.

[CNYCacher]

Yea, gathered onto that trick a couple years ago.  A persistent link is live.  That's what I'm intentionally avoiding. 



Meh.  Fine fine, I'll find some need for a perl script and do that.  I was in the middle of PHP arrays, but eh.  Perl is probably more my spec.  Mind you, my background is C/C++ and shell scripts.   Some of these new fangled "languages" I'm not overly partial to as they're built for ease of use over clean architecture.  Like PHP being seemingly unable to use XML without a loop.  That STILL drives me up a wall.  That is bad design.  Easy to use, sure, for 95% of situations, but Gods alone will be able to help you that remaining 5%.

Maybe you need to try it in XSLT

[GigaBuist]

Just checked out your source code.  You're pretty much just transforming XML 1:1 into another markup language.  You could, if you wanted, just make an XSL sheet to do the work and use PHP to apply the stylesheet to the source, present the output.

Might be a fun exercise.  I've done a fair amount of XSL(T) going from XML into XML:FO to create PDF reports.  Forces you to think about stuff in a different manner.

Heh, I see CNYCacher just said the same thing.

[CNYCacher]

Ha!

[RevDisk]

Maybe you need to try it in XSLT

Daddy like

http://revdisk.org/sm2.xml


Took three minutes to implement.  Three minutes to live status.  Updated shell script, cron, et al.  XSLT gets the thumbs up. 

[CNYCacher]

Daddy like

http://revdisk.org/sm2.xml


Took three minutes to implement.  Three minutes to live status.  Updated shell script, cron, et al.  XSLT gets the thumbs up. 

[grandpa]Now you're cooking with gas![/grandpa]

[RevDisk]

[grandpa]Now you're cooking with gas![/grandpa]

Figured out how to embed in PHP as well

Check out server.php

[RevDisk]

PHP-XML done.
XSL done.

(Both in need of prettying, but I'll do that last.)

Guess perl and python implementations are next.  Unless anyone else has suggestions for more or other implementations?  I'll pick the best, keep it, pretty it up and toss the rest in Projects for archiving.