Merge XML Files via PHP

[jarvis]

Hi All,

 

I'm hoping someone can help!

 

I've got multiple XML files each start and end with a <property> tag

 

I'm trying to merge all files and the following works in terms of merging the files:

#Create an array of all file names
$files = array();

#Create a function to combine all XML docs
function combineXML($file) { 
	global $xmlstr; 
         
	$xml = simplexml_load_file($file); 

	foreach($xml as $element) 
	$xmlstr .= $element->asXML(); 
} 

#Create an XML file for each result
foreach ($posts as $post){

	$file_name = $post->vebraid.'.xml';
	$myfile = fopen($file_name, "w") or die("Unable to open file!");
	
	$content = $post->xml;
	fwrite($myfile, $content);
	
	#Add filename into array of all file names
	$path = get_stylesheet_directory_uri();
	$directory = '/xml/';
	$files[]=$path.$directory.$post->vebraid.'.xml';
	
	#Concatenates two or more XML files by creating a string representation of XML elements then reloading string as XML 
    $xmlstr = '<property>';  
	
    foreach ($files as $file) 
        combineXML($file); 

    $xmlstr .= '</property>'; 

    #Convert string to XML for further processing      
    $xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr); 
    $bytes = file_put_contents("combined.xml", $xml->asXML());  	
	
}

However, I need to differentiate between each file within the new combined.xml file, ideally adding <prop_detail> around each merged file, for example:

<property>
  <prop_detail>
    first file contents
  </prop_detail>
  <prop_detail>
    second file contents
  </prop_detail>
  <prop_detail>
    third file contents
  </prop_detail>
</property>

I simply can't see how I can introduce this new element 

 

Any help is very much appreciated!

 

 

[cyberRobot]

Have you tried something like this

$xmlstr = '<property>';
foreach ($files as $file) {
    $xmlstr .= '<prop_detail>';
    combineXML($file);
    $xmlstr .= '</prop_detail>';
}
$xmlstr .= '</property>';

[Psycho]

Just a side note. Using GLOBAL is a bad practice. In this case, it is not even needed. A function should return a value.

 

So, the combineXML() function should look something like this

function combineXML($file) { 
 
    $xml = simplexml_load_file($file); 
    $fileXML = ''; 
    foreach($xml as $element) {
        $fileXML .= $element->asXML();
    }
    return $fileXML;
}

Then, in the code cyberRobot posted, change this

$xmlstr .= '<prop_detail>';
combineXML($file);
$xmlstr .= '</prop_detail>';

To this:

$xmlstr .= '<prop_detail>';
$xmlstr .= combineXML($file);
$xmlstr .= '</prop_detail>';

Edited September 1, 2016 by Psycho