unexpected T_OBJECT_OPERATOR error - DOM Parser

[Marvin0410]

Hello all,

 

I have here some PHP code that was working fine under my installation of XAMPP (it has PHP 5). When I moved the following code to my web hosting site, 1&1, it threw up the error you see in the subject field. I attempted to create a new htaccess file in the same directory as my website files to force PHP 5, but I still get the same error. Any ideas on how else I can parse the XML? My code is as follows:

 

//get ALL instances of wanted element(s)

$titles = $item->getElementsByTagName('title');

$dates = $item->getElementsByTagName('pubDate');

$descriptions = $item ->getElementsByTagName('description');

 

//formatting

$content = ('

<ul class ="blog_entry">

<li class="title_entry">

'.$titles->item(0)->nodeValue.

  '</li>

<li class="date_entry">

Posted on '.date("M d, Y H:i",strtotime($dates->item(0)->nodeValue)).

'</li>

<br>

<li class="description_entry">

'.$descriptions->item(0)->nodeValue.

  '</li>

</ul>

');

echo $content;

}

 

Personally, I think it's a problem with the nodeValue, since apparently the PHP 5 push doesn't seem to work. Any other way I could reference the XML values I get?

[betterphp]

what php version is your host using ?

[Marvin0410]

They're using PHP4, but I tried modifying the htaccess file to force PHP5...it still gave the same error...maybe it's their specific configuration of PHP, I'm not sure...

 

Maybe I need to find something other than the DOMParser to parse this XML...

[requinix]

PHP 4 doesn't support function calls chained with object operators. In other words,

$x = foo()->bar;

is invalid. Use a temporary variable.

$temp = foo(); $x = $temp->bar;

[Marvin0410]

So instead of directly referencing $titles->item(0)->nodeValue, I can do something like,

 

$foo2 = item(0);

$foo = $titles->$foo2->nodeValue;

 

Despite the fact that item(0) references an object in an array (I think)? If so, I could try that...

[requinix]

Yes.

Despite the fact that item(0) references an object in an array

1. An array as a concept, yes. If that's DOM then the "item" function belongs to a DOMNodeList, and calling item() returns a DOMNode. Whether there are arrays behind the scenes or what isn't important.

 

2. There are two basic steps to executing code for every interpreted programming language. First is to build a series of tokens which convert the symbols you type into individual pieces of data that the interpreter can handle. Like converting every thing into one character: "foo()->bar" might translate to "FAN", where 'F' represents a function call, 'A' represents the arrow operator (->), and 'N' represents a name of something. Next comes converting those tokens into real actions: calling the "foo" function, treating the returned value as an object, and searching for its "bar" member.

For all this to work there have to be a set of rules about what tokens are allowed where. PHP 4 simply did not support the "FA" combination. Could have been oversight on the PHP developer(s) side, or maybe the code to allow such a thing was too complicated at the time. Whatever the reason, "FA" was not a valid series of tokens. (In PHP 5 they allowed it.)

So while accessing a member of an object, which itself was returned from a function, is a perfectly valid thing to do, PHP 4 wouldn't let you do both parts at the same time.