mmm xml info to query a file?

[fastmouse]

Hi all,

 

Im new to the Php world only just having done a 2 day course. Problem I have is my boss expects me to know everything! and to be honest PHP confused me a bit and the book I recieved with the course was rubbish!

 

Anyway heres what the boss wants me to do by monday!

 

I need to read in an xml file;

 

$file = "chart_data.xml";  (is this right?)

 

then I need to extract a FileName contained as one of the elements heres an eg. of my xml:

 

<charts>

<AirField>

  <name>CYYT ST JOHNS NFLD</name>

  <Plate>

  <Title>CENTRAL DE-ICING FACILITY</Title>

  <FileName>CYYTF1</FileName>

  </Plate>

  <Plate>

  <Title>BURIN 8 (LEXAK,BURIN RNAV STAR</Title>

  <FileName>CYYTH2</FileName>

  </Plate>

  <Plate>

  <Title>NDB RWY 29</Title>

  <FileName>CYYTP2</FileName>

  </Plate>

  </AirField>

</charts>

 

I need to then use the info used within the <FileName> tag and use it to search a folder containing PDFs and see if the required file is there?

 

do I use the Is_file command?

 

I then need it to produce a text file of all the missing files?

 

I may be using the wrong technology here, but it seemed possible to do? basicaly parse the filename add the extention have it look for the full name in the folder if false return a list of "False" file names?

 

Ive spent 3 days on this now and havent got anywhere! im thinking of looking for another course!

 

If anyone understands what im on about   please explain what I have to do as im lost! If you can supply some code for me to learn from it would be handy also!

 

thanks

Mike

[irvieto]

hi Mike.

 

As far as i understand you. You need to:

 

1- Get a XML File and retrieve the filename value(s)

2- Search if the filename.pdf file exists

3- Generate a file of all non-existent pdf files within xml.

 

Lets start.

$file = "chart_data.xml";  (is this right?)

 

No, with that code you are only assigning the string value to the variable $file. You are not reading the xml file.. 

 

1 - To read the xml file is neccesary to use functions like fopen("chart_data.xml","r+") and then parse the data in the file ( Read about PHP File handling ) .

Fortunately, there are a lot of functions on the web and information to parse xml information from a given file (Search at google php xml parse )

2-  Once you have the filename, use the php function file_exist("some_file.pdf"). it returns true if exists or false if not.

3- When you check for the file existance, you can create a file fopen("non-existent-files.txt","w+").

 

hope this helps, gl

[cooldude832]

http://us.php.net/manual/en/ref.xml.php

 

read up since you are getting paid (u said a boss) to do this you should do your own research

 

For the most part xml can be rendered in a manner similar to comma separated values, however the xml library can do it much simpler because it knows how xml tag structure works.