PHP and XML

dwoody · #1 (**permalink**) 03-22-06, 10:08 PM

I have an XML file that is formatted into HTML by an attached XSL style sheet. If I open the XML file on its own it works great and is formatted properly in HTML and everything. When I try to include this file into a PHP page however (using include() function) I get an error. I am trying to create a page that has this XML file included in it along with a number of other HTML pages. Is using the include function not a valid technique? Should I get rid of the XSL and use PHP to parse the XML and format it in the PHP script? Help please.

NeverMind · #2 (**permalink**) 03-23-06, 03:48 AM

yes, you shouldn't use include! use file_get_contents() instead.
include/require are there to include PHP files and parse them in run time and since XML files have the "<?" php thought it was a PHP file and attempted to parse and then found it wasn't a sane php file so it complained!

PHP Code:


			
echo file_get_contents('myXMLFile.xml');

dwoody · #3 (**permalink**) 03-26-06, 12:43 PM

Thanks for your help, this is a start.

Here is my situation more clearly with some simplified code.
XML file

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="tempStyles.xsl"?>

<mainMenu>
    
    <menuItem>
    	<label>Home</label>
    	<subItem>Home 1</subItem>
    	<subItem>Home 2</subItem>
    	<subItem>Home 3</subItem>
    </menuItem>	
    
    <menuItem>
    	<label>Services</label>
    	<subItem>Service 1</subItem>
    	<subItem>Service 2</subItem>
    </menuItem>

</mainMenu>

Here is the attached XSL sheet

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:template match="/">
  <html>
  <body>
    
    <xsl:for-each select="mainMenu/menuItem">
    
       <xsl:value-of select="label"/><br/>
       
       	<xsl:for-each select="subItem">
       		<xsl:value-of select="../subItem"/><br/>
       	</xsl:for-each>	
       	<br/>
    
    </xsl:for-each>
    
  </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

If you save both these files to your computer and open the xml file on your computer you will get an output of the label for each menuItem followed by all the subItems. This is the intended output. Now I would like to simply include this xml file with its formatted xsl output into a php page. How do I go about this?

mab · #4 (**permalink**) 03-26-06, 01:07 PM

So what exact errors are you getting? Specifically, what is working and not working (so we don't have to guess or mind read)?

Also, see the following from the PHP manual -

Quote:

11. How am I supposed to mix XML and PHP? It complains about my <?xml tags!

In order to embed <?xml straight into your PHP code, you'll have to turn off short tags by having the PHP directive short_open_tags set to 0. You cannot set this directive with ini_set(). Regardless of short_open_tags being on or off, you can do something like:
<?php echo '<?xml'; ?>.

dwoody · #5 (**permalink**) 03-26-06, 08:35 PM

Ok. I have 3 files sitting on the server; a PHP file, an XML file, and an XSL file. Ideally what I would like to do is include the XML file in the PHP file such that all the contents of the XML file still get processed by the XSL code. If I type the path of the XML file into the browser it opens the XML file and outputs the data according to the XSL code attached inside of it (the XSL is just a style cheet for displaying XML). So far so good.

Now I would like to include this XML file within the PHP file and have it display the same way that it did when it was opened directly. Thus far I have tried two methods for doing this.

1) <?php include('menuData.xml'); ?>
The following error is reported:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/temp/menuData.xml on line 1

This makes sense since the include function is not meant for XML files.

2) <?php echo file_get_contents('menuData.xml'); ?>
The following is produced:

" button_one.gif 1 - 1 1 - 2 1 - 3 button_two.gif 2 - 1 2 - 2 2 - 3 button_three.gif 3 - 1 3 - 2 3 - 3 "

This is just all the contents of the XML file.

What I would like produced is the same thing that was outputed when the XML file was opened directly by the browser. Any help on the matter is appreciated. The files are shown below.

menuData.xml

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="menuStyle.xsl"?> 

<menu>
	<menuItem>
		<label>button_one.gif</label>
		
			<subItem> 1 - 1</subItem>
			<subItem> 1 - 2</subItem>
			<subItem> 1 - 3</subItem>
		
	</menuItem>
	<menuItem>
		<label>button_two.gif</label>
	
			<subItem> 2 - 1</subItem>
			<subItem> 2 - 2</subItem>
			<subItem> 2 - 3</subItem>
		
	</menuItem>
	<menuItem>
		<label>button_three.gif</label>
	
			<subItem> 3 - 1</subItem>
			<subItem> 3 - 2</subItem>
			<subItem> 3 - 3</subItem>
	
	</menuItem>
</menu>

menuStyle.xsl

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?> 

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output method="html" version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes" /> 

<xsl:template match="/">
  <html>
  <body>
    <table border="1" width="165" height="*">
	    
	    <xsl:for-each select="menu/menuItem">
	    <tr>
	      <td colspan="2">		 
			  <img src="{label}"/>
	      </td>
	      
	    </tr>
	    <tr>
	      <td width="20">
	    			 
	      </td>
	      <td width="145">			
			  <table border="1" width="145">
				<xsl:for-each select="subItem">
			   	  <tr>
			        <td>
			      	  <xsl:value-of select="../subItem" />
			        </td>
			      </tr> 
			    </xsl:for-each>   
			  </table>  
		  </td>  
	    </tr>  
	      
	    </xsl:for-each>
    </table> 
    
  </body>
  </html>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

menu.php

Code:

<?php
// Comment out one or the other to try them.

//include('menuData.xml');

echo file_get_contents('menuData.xml');

?>

mab · #6 (**permalink**) 03-26-06, 09:40 PM

I tried both versions (include and file_get_contents) on a PHP5 system with short_open_tags = off and both versions work. See the attached image.

When short_open_tags are ON, I receive the error you have for the include case, but the file_get_contents version works. Note too that there is browser buffering going on. Exit your browser to cause it to completely reload the page after switching your .php file contents.

The magic quote settings will also affect the reading of text files. However, when I turned on magic quotes runtime, I got a specific error pointing out the slash in the xml line.

You should be able to get the file_get_contents(...) version to work...

dwoody · #7 (**permalink**) 03-26-06, 09:49 PM

Thanks a ton! I'm glad you got it to work. Could you tell my how to turn short_open_tags off. Also, does doing this have any other effects I should be aware of.

mab · #8 (**permalink**) 03-26-06, 11:20 PM

From the php manual -
short_open_tag is settable for PHP_INI_PERDIR for PHP versions > 4.0.0 and settable for PHP_INI_ALL in PHP versions <= 4.0.0.

PHP_INI_PERDIR means - Entry can be set in php.ini, .htaccess or httpd.conf

PHP_INI_ALL means - Entry can be set anywhere (including in php script using ini_set(...) )

The only effect on PHP code is if you are using <? instead of <?php and if you are using <?= instead of <?php echo. The short versions would need to be changed to the longer versions.

If this is your own server, turning short_open_tag off is a positive step, from both an XML standpoint, and for code portability. See the following note about this setting -

Quote:

; NOTE: Using short tags should be avoided when developing applications or
; libraries that are meant for redistribution, or deployment on PHP
; servers which are not under your control, because short tags may not
; be supported on the target server. For portable, redistributable code,
; be sure not to use short tags.

dwoody · #9 (**permalink**) 04-04-06, 11:29 PM

Hey,
I got it working! but only in Explorer

. Does that make any sense that it would not work equally well in firefox? I viewed the source code for both situations and it was identical (as expected) so I dont think anything funny is going on in the PHP side of things but I may be wrong. In explorer I get the expected table, but in firefox i get what I had previously, I printout of:

" button_one.gif 1 - 1 1 - 2 1 - 3 button_two.gif 2 - 1 2 - 2 2 - 3 button_three.gif 3 - 1 3 - 2 3 - 3 "

If I open the XML file directly via the URL neither browser has a problem and displays it perfectly. When I use the file_get_contents('menuData.xml'); explorer outputs the correct display but firefox outputs what I just wrote above.
Why might this be?

thomasantony · #10 (**permalink**) 04-05-06, 02:20 AM

Hi,
Try doing this.

PHP Code:


			
<?php

header('Content-type: application/xml');

echo file_get_contents('menuData.xml');

?>

or this:

PHP Code:


			
<?php

header('Content-type: text/xml');

echo file_get_contents('menuData.xml');

?>

Hey, that was my first post here. Hope it was helpful

Thomas