creating a XML file from MYSQL with PHP

[jamesflowers]

I have the code below , and when I run it on my website , it returns a XML Parsing Error: not well-formed error , which says it has a problem reading the & i think

 

please see http://www.jamesflowersreports.com/php/xml2.php

 

I think it has something to wiht the str_replace as when I change the $row['customerName'] . "</Name>\n"; to $row['customerNumber'] . "</Name>\n"; as a test it works fine , I understand XML cant handle special characters , how would prevent this happening?

 

code as below

 

 

 

$query = "SELECT * FROM customers";
$resultID = mysql_query($query, $linkID) or die("Data not found.");

$xml_output = "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>\n";
$xml_output .= "<entries>\n";

for($x = 0 ; $x < mysql_num_rows($resultID) ; $x++){
    $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($resultID);
    $xml_output .= "\t<entry>\n";
    $xml_output .= "\t\t<Name>" . $row['customerName'] . "</Name>\n";
        // Escaping illegal characters
        $row['text'] = str_replace("&", "&", $row['text']);
        $row['text'] = str_replace("<", "&lt", $row['text']);
        $row['text'] = str_replace(">", ">", $row['text']);
        $row['text'] = str_replace("\"", """, $row['text']);
    $xml_output.= "\t\t<Number>" . $row['customerNumber'] . "</Number>\n";
    $xml_output.= "\t</entry>\n";
}

$xml_output .= "</entries>";

echo $xml_output;

 

 

regards

 

James

[Barand]

You could always use CDATA elements

 

cust.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<customers>
    <Customer>
    <Number>1234</Number>
    <Name><![CDATA[<i>Proctor & Gample</i>]]></Name>
    <Text><![CDATA[<strong>Soap Manufacturers</strong>]]></Text>
    </Customer>
    <Customer>
    <Number>1235</Number>
    <Name><![CDATA[<i>Fleecem & Runn</i>]]></Name>
    <Text><![CDATA[<strong>Financial Advisors</strong>]]></Text>
    </Customer>
</customers>

code

$xml = simplexml_load_file('cust.xml');
foreach ($xml->Customer as $c) {
    echo $c->Number . '<br>';
    echo $c->Name . '<br>';
    echo $c->Text . '<br><br>';
}

output

 

[jamesflowers]

this is creating the XML data from a DB before hand , I dont have cust.xml already .

 

Thanks

[Barand]

Yes, I know.

 

I am suggesting you create it using CDATA.

 

The above is an example of what it will look like, in an effort to assist you, and also to demonstrate that it can hold special characters.

[jamesflowers]

cool , thanks

 

I have noticed it doesnt catch eacute's are these not recognised by CDATA ?

 

thanks