Beginner: Selecting values from xml file

[Ty44ler]

Just learning so bear with me....

 

I want to create a drop down box with values that are pulled from an xml file. I can get the drop down box and the names to be placed within the box right, but I can't get the name of the option to be the value within the drop down box, so instead of NUM it would be the color that the <option> tag surrounds....

 

For example:

<select><option>Please Select</option><option [color=red]value='COLORS'[/color]>
<option value='NUM'>red</option>
<option value='NUM'>blue</option>
<option value='NUM'>yellow</option>
<option value='NUM'>green</option>
<option value='NUM'>purple</option>
<option value='NUM'>orange</option>
<option value='NUM'>banana</option>
</option></select>

 

Here's my xml:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<colors>
<num>red</num>
<num>blue</num>
<num>yellow</num>
<num>green</num>
<num>purple</num>
<num>orange</num>
<num>banana</num>
</colors>

 

Here's my php file:

<?php
// The XML file that you wish to be parsed
$file = "xml_beginner.xml";

// This function tells the parser what to do with the data once it reaches the contents
// that appear between tags.
echo "<select><option>Please Select</option>";

function contents($parser, $data){
echo $data;
}

// This function tells the parser to place a <b> where it finds a start tag.
function startTag($parser, $data){
echo "<option value='$data'>";
}

// And this function tells the parser to replace the end tags with "<b><br />"
function endTag($parser, $data){
echo "</option>";
}


// These lines create the parser and then set the functions for the parser to use when
// reading the document.
$xml_parser = xml_parser_create();

// Sets the functions for start and end tags
xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, "startTag", "endTag");
// Sets the function for the contents/data
xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, "contents");

// Opens the file for reading
$fp = fopen($file, "r");

// Read the file and save its contents as the variable "data"
$data = fread($fp, 80000);

// This if statement does two things. 1) it parses the document according to our 
// functions created above. 2) If the parse fails for some reason it returns an
// error message and also tells us which line the error occured at.
if(!(xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, feof($fp)))){
die("Error on line " . xml_get_current_line_number($xml_parser));
}

// Free the memory used to create the parser
xml_parser_free($xml_parser);

// Close the file when you're done reading it
fclose($fp);
echo "</select>";
?>

[rajivgonsalves]

you can parse the xml consider the following code

 

<?php
$str = '<?xml version="1.0"?>
<colors>
   <num>red</num>
   <num>blue</num>
   <num>yellow</num>
   <num>green</num>
   <num>purple</num>
   <num>orange</num>
   <num>banana</num>
</colors>';


$root = simplexml_load_string($str);    
$data = get_object_vars($root);

foreach ($data['num'] as $color) {
    echo $color . "<br />";
}


?>

[Ty44ler]

wow, that was a lot simpler than what I previously had. Thanks a bunch! I may have a few more questions once I begin pulling from an actual xml web service, but this is great!