Not new to xml generating but am new to really complex parsing...help.

[nine72]

Ok, I am at a complete loss on this and have finally come to the XML Parsing Gods (and perhaps a PHP minor deity) for guidance…

I will try my best to describe what I have going on…

1) I have 15 form pages, well over 500 potential fields, which are written in PHP. While most pages are one time entry forms, there are 5 that can be “recycled” as many times as needed. An example would be the Contacts Form. A user can give me 1 contact and move on OR they can “Save” the contact and add another. They may add as many contacts as they wish (up to 50).
2) I am saving the input to the forms in a temp mySql db and at the point of submission, generating a massive XML string and sending to a middle ware app written by someone else in-house. (all easy enough so far)
3) Previously the middle ware sent me a response XML string that was very simple.

	<Response>
                   <insert_status>Accepted</insert_status>
	</Response>.

And I would return the user to a "Complete" or "Insert Faild" page based on the <insert_status> .

Now the requirements have changed and the response string will consist of EVERY value sent to the middleware and its conversion state i.e. a shortened name to meet the field or format requirements of the db (Example: John Smith would return as JOHN-SM001 etc.). Now I will need to parse, reorganize, pass the information into a PHP $_SESSION array and present the information back to the user on the Insert Complete page.

The issue is this, using contacts as the example, if I am returned the following string part..

<Contacts>
<Contact>
 <contact_id>833</contact_id>
 <contact_type>ACCOUNTING</contact_type>
 <first_name>NATALIE</first_name>
 <last_name>GEWN</last_name>
 <middle_i>M</middle_i>
 <address1>147 OCEAN DR</address1>
 <address2></address2>
 <state_cd>MA</state_cd>
 <city>RIVERMORE</city>
 <zip>01556</zip>
 <cntry_cd>840</cntry_cd>
 <telephone>9879879877</telephone>
 <mobile></mobile>
 <email_id>NGEWN@MYCO.COM</email_id>
 <department></department>
 <title></title>
 <fax>3213213211</fax>
 <url></url>
 <country>UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</country>
 <state>MASSACHUSETTS</state>
 <customer_care_phone>9879879877</customer_care_phone>
</Contact>
</Contacts>

50 times how would I be able make each Contact and its sub set of tags unique so that I could store them in the PHP $_SESSION array where I can pull the distinct values to populate a response page giving back the information as it is returned to me. One reason that I would need to put it to a session is that some returned response would be meaningless to the user such as <billing_value> 00MER90</billing_value>. I would have to search 00MER90 and print to the page its corresponding friendly name such as “Mileage Earned Revenue”


Right now I can return the string and print the array in a multidimensiona l array using this class.
[PHP]
<?PHP

class XmlToArray
{

var $xml='';

/**
* Default Constructor
* @param $xml = xml data
* @return none
*/

function XmlToArray($xml )
{
$this->xml = $xml;
}

/**
* _struct_to_arra y($values, &$i)
*
* This adds the contents of the return xml into the array for easier processing.
* Recursive, Static
*
* @access private
* @param array $values this is the xml data in an array
* @param int $i this is the current location in the array
* @return Array
*/

function _struct_to_arra y($values, &$i)
{
$child = array();
if (isset($values[$i]['value'])) array_push($chi ld, $values[$i]['value']);

while ($i++ < count($values)) {
switch ($values[$i]['type']) {
case 'cdata':
array_push($chi ld, $values[$i]['value']);
break;

case 'complete':
$name = $values[$i]['tag'];
if(!empty($name )){
$child[$name]= ($values[$i]['value'])?($values[$i]['value']):'';
if(isset($value s[$i]['attributes'])) {
$child[$name] = $values[$i]['attributes'];
}
}
break;

case 'open':
$name = $values[$i]['tag'];
$size = isset($child[$name]) ? sizeof($child[$name]) : 0;
$child[$name][$size] = $this->_struct_to_arr ay($values, $i);
break;

case 'close':
return $child;
break;
}
}
return $child;
}//_struct_to_arra y

/**
* createArray($da ta)
*
* This is adds the contents of the return xml into the array for easier processing.
*
* @access public
* @param string $data this is the string of the xml data
* @return Array
*/
function createArray()
{
$xml = $this->xml;
$values = array();
$index = array();
$array = array();
$parser = xml_parser_crea te();
xml_parser_set_ option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP _WHITE, 1);
xml_parser_set_ option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE _FOLDING, 0);
xml_parse_into_ struct($parser, $xml, $values, $index);
xml_parser_free ($parser);
$i = 0;
$name = $values[$i]['tag'];
$array[$name] = isset($values[$i]['attributes']) ? $values[$i]['attributes'] : '';
$array[$name] = $this->_struct_to_arr ay($values, $i);
return $array;

}//createArray


}//XmlToArray

?>
[/PHP]

However, this is just way too deep (I think) once completed for it to be usable for this project.

(did any of that make sense?)

I would be more than willing to provide a full sample return xml string via email if some one needs to see just how it is being sent to me…

Thank you for your time.

[Dormilich]

Ok, I am at a complete loss on this and have finally come to the XML Parsing Gods (and perhaps a PHP minor deity) for guidance….

Deity bless you.

now back to "business". if I understand it right (it was quite some text to read) you look for an easy way to transform the middle-ware xml into a session saveable array? (correct me if I'm completely on the wrong track...)

(*evil grin* ahem) as fortune plays I do something similar (but admittedly not that large), I convert a control xml into page specific objects. my solution is to convert it into an xml serialized string that is then deserialized into my desired object.

like that:
[PHP]$xml = "control.xm l"; // $xml = $xmlInputString ;
$xsl = "ControlToWDDX. xsl";
$result = XSLTransform->process($xml , $xsl); // php5 xslt processing
$array = wddx_deserializ e($result);
// do whatever is to be done with $array[/PHP]
advantage, when doing xslt you can convert 00MER90 to Mileage Earned Revenue while you're at it, or crop/trim/replace/alter/add information, as you desire.

regards