XML & Php

Simple XML parser

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This example reads an xml file and parses it to extract and layout desired dataset encoded in UTF-8.

The example xml file which is ISO-8859-1 encoded:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?> <rss version="2.0"> <item> <title>Title of item</title> <author>Author name</author> <date>Date of article</date> <article>Content of an article</article> </item> <item> <title>Title of item 2</title> <author>Author name</author> <date>Date of article 2</date> <article>Content of article 2</article> </item> <item> <title>Title of item 3</title> <author>Author name</author> <date>Date of article 3</date> <article>Content of article 3</article> </item> </rss>

The source code:
<? $cc=10; $url = "example.xml"; //ELEMENTS TO RETRIEVE - YOU MUST KNOW THE TAG NAMES OF EACH ELEMENT - Can be improved using an array (next update): $title=''; $author=''; $date=''; $article=''; $link=''; //Counter to start counting the number of items $cz=0; $data = file_get_contents($url); $depth = array(); //The dataset will be stored inside this variable $txt=''; function startElement($parser, $name, $attrs) { //we use global variables to keep track of each element while parsing the whole document global $cc,$cz,$txt; global $depth; global $tagname; global $title,$author,$date,$article,$link; if($cz < $cc) { /* display only if we find all items to display - updated here*/ if(strlen(trim($article)) > 0 && strlen(trim($title)) > 0 && strlen(trim($author)) > 0 && strlen(trim($date)) > 0) { //at this level we have a NEW ITEM -> we increment to items' counter if($cz++ >= 1) { /*We display the dataset in the order we wish (see below to apply a different design)*/ $txt.=$title.$author.$date.$article; $title=''; $author=''; $date=''; $article=''; } } $tagname=$name; } //one level deeper $depth[$parser]++; } function endElement($parser, $name) { global $depth; global $tagname; $tagname=''; $depth[$parser]--; } function characterData($parser, $ddata) { global $tagname; global $cc,$cz,$txt; global $title,$author,$date,$article,$link; /*For each tag name we receive we only extract the wanted ones You can apply different layout to the data */ if($cz < $cc) { switch($tagname) { case 'TITLE':if(strlen(trim($ddata)) > 0) $title= '<tr><td style="width:40%;background-color:#fafafa;border-right:1px solid black" valign="top"><h3>'.utf8_encode($ddata).'</h3>';break; case 'AUTHOR':if(strlen(trim($ddata)) > 0) $author= '<u>Author</u>: '.utf8_encode($ddata);break; case 'DATE':if(strlen(trim($ddata)) > 0) $date= '<br /><i>Date</i>: '.utf8_encode($ddata).'</td>';break; case 'ARTICLE':if(strlen(trim($ddata)) > 0) $article= '<td>'.utf8_encode($ddata).'</td></tr>';break; default: break; } } } /*everything is triggered here - we parse the xml file and call the startElement & endElement functions, then the characterData function to read all content - the xml_parse line launches the procedure taking care of the arguments*/ $xml_parser = xml_parser_create(); xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, "startElement", "endElement"); xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, "characterData"); if (!xml_parse($xml_parser, $data)) die(sprintf("XML error: %s at line %d", xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($xml_parser)),xml_get_current_line_number($xml_parser))); xml_parser_free($xml_parser); //We store the last elements $txt.=$title.$author.$date.$article; /*echo the result inside a table (you may write it into a file)*/ $txt= '<table cellpadding="5" style="border:1px solid black">'.$txt.'</table>'; echo $txt; ?>

Notes:
- you need to have PHP 4 or above version of Php;
- you may call any remote xml/rss/atom files, but you need to know about the structure and tag names of the file.

You may wish to read additional materials from:
- function.xml-parser-create
- function.xml-set-element-handler
- function.xml-set-character-data-handler.php
- function.xml-parse.php
- php.net/global

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