SimpleXML append multiple files - php

Question

I'm trying to combine multiple XML files, using SimpleXML if possible. I'm just trying to append products, children, and child data from file 2 into file 1. I'm not trying to merge elements, just append file 2 to the bottom of file 1, and so on. (Though I guess this is technically merging merchandiser elements?) The files contain the same schema and will both look similar to the example below, only thing that will be changing is the actual text. This is just XML for two different products, I added a large space in between products so that it's easier to see where it ends.
<merchandiser xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="merchandiser.xsd">
<header>
<merchantId>35928</merchantId>
<merchantName>Sunspel Clothing</merchantName>
<createdOn>01/14/2016 02:03:31</createdOn>
</header>
<product product_id="14633" name="Cotton Socks" sku_number="1588/102">
<category>
<primary>Accessories</primary>
<secondary>Men's~~Socks</secondary>
</category>
<URL>
<product>
http://click.linksynergy.com/link?id=D*rqD2paIXY&offerid=191965.14633&type=15&murl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sunspel.com%2Fuk%2Fcotton-sock-black.html
</product>
<productImage>
http://www.sunspel.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/1/5/1588-102-new.jpg
</productImage>
</URL>
<description>
<short>
Our new cotton socks are designed by Sunspel and crafted in an Italian factory steeped in years of experience, skill and heritage. They are made from the highest quality, extra-long staple Egyptian cotton yarn which, prior to knitting is combed, twisted and mercerised to enhance the comfort, shine and absorption of the fabric as well as its resistance to pilling and shrinking.
</short>
</description>
<discount currency="GBP">
<type>amount</type>
</discount>
<price currency="GBP">
<retail>15.00</retail>
</price>
<shipping>
<availability>in-stock</availability>
</shipping>
<pixel>
http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=D*rqD2paIXY&bids=191965.14633&type=15&subid=0
</pixel>
</product>
<product product_id="15115" name="Cotton Socks" sku_number="1589/236">
<category>
<primary>Accessories</primary>
<secondary>Men's~~Socks~~Men's</secondary>
</category>
<URL>
<product>
http://click.linksynergy.com/link?id=D*rqD2paIXY&offerid=191965.15115&type=15&murl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sunspel.com%2Fuk%2Fmens-cotton-socks-navy-stripes.html
</product>
<productImage>
http://www.sunspel.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/1/5/1588-236-new.jpg
</productImage>
</URL>
<description>
<short>
Our new cotton socks are designed by Sunspel and crafted in an Italian factory steeped in years of experience, skill and heritage. They are made from the highest quality, extra-long staple Egyptian cotton yarn which, prior to knitting is combed, twisted and mercerised to enhance the comfort, shine and absorption of the fabric as well as its resistance to pilling and shrinking.
</short>
</description>
<discount currency="GBP">
<type>amount</type>
</discount>
<price currency="GBP">
<retail>17.00</retail>
</price>
<shipping>
<availability>in-stock</availability>
</shipping>
<pixel>
http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=D*rqD2paIXY&bids=191965.15115&type=15&subid=0
</pixel>
</product>
<product product_id="15116" name="Cotton Socks" sku_number="1589/711">
<category>
<primary>Accessories</primary>
<secondary>Men's~~Socks~~Men's</secondary>
</category>
<URL>
<product>
http://click.linksynergy.com/link?id=D*rqD2paIXY&offerid=191965.15116&type=15&murl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sunspel.com%2Fuk%2Fmens-cotton-socks-charcoal-melange-stripes.html
</product>
<productImage>
http://www.sunspel.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/1/5/1588-711-new.jpg
</productImage>
</URL>
<description>
<short>
Our new cotton socks are designed by Sunspel and crafted in an Italian factory steeped in years of experience, skill and heritage. They are made from the highest quality, extra-long staple Egyptian cotton yarn which, prior to knitting is combed, twisted and mercerised to enhance the comfort, shine and absorption of the fabric as well as its resistance to pilling and shrinking.
</short>
</description>
<discount currency="GBP">
<type>amount</type>
</discount>
<price currency="GBP">
<retail>17.00</retail>
</price>
<shipping>
<availability>in-stock</availability>
</shipping>
<pixel>
http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=D*rqD2paIXY&bids=191965.15116&type=15&subid=0
</pixel>
</product>
With some foreach statements I'm able to append all product children and attributes, but this doesn't actually give me the child data.
$file1 = '35928_3210820_mp.xml';
$file2 = '39153_3210820_mp.xml';
$fileout = 'ukmerge.xml';
$xml1 = simplexml_load_file( $file1 );
$xml2 = simplexml_load_file( $file2 ); // loop through the product and add them and their attributes to xml1
$product = $xml2->product;
$prod = $xml2->merchandiser->header->product;
$category = $product->category;
$url = $product->URL;
$description = $product->description;
foreach( $xml2->children() as $child ) {
$new = $xml1->addChild( $child->getName() , htmlspecialchars($child) );
foreach( $child->attributes() as $key => $value ) {
$new->addAttribute( $key, $value );
}
} $fh = fopen( $fileout, 'w') or die ( "can't open file $fileout" );
fwrite( $fh, $xml1->asXML() );
fclose( $fh );
When I try to add on from there then everything gets messed up and nothing is in the correct place/order anymore. I'd also like to put this into a function since I'm going to be doing it often. Any help is greatly appreciate as I've been struggling with this for a few days now and have scowered over a few dozen stackoverflow and php.net threads.
One of the things that's confusing me is the <merchandiser> and <header> tags that every file starts with. Once the merchandiser tag ends it is the end of the document so I need to take only what's inside the merchandiser tag of file 2 and append it inside the merchandiser tag of file 1. The header tag just confuses me cause I'm not sure if it's gets in the way or not.

Answer 1

As preliminary note, your XML sample is malformed. Also it is not coherent with your code (i.e. there is not ->merchandiser->header->product ).
So, in this example I will use a different sample, like this one (file1.xml):
<root>
<product>
<name>Product 1</name>
</product>
<product>
<name>Product 2</name>
</product>
</root>
and this one (file2.xml):
<root>
<product>
<name>Product 3</name>
</product>
<product>
<name>Product 4</name>
</product>
</root>
You don't want to use DOMDocument->importNode() due “it kept throwing a lot of errors”.
You can use DOMDocument in conjunction with SimpleXML and dom_import_simplexml() function.
First of all, prepare destination XML: load the file with SimpleXML, create a DOMDocument using dom_import_simplexml() and set $parent variable to <root> element:
$dst = simplexml_load_file( 'file1.xml' );
$dst = dom_import_simplexml( $dst )->ownerDocument;
$parent = $dst->getElementsByTagName( 'root' )->item(0);
Then, load second file with SimpleXML:
$src = simplexml_load_file( 'file2.xml' );
Through a foreach() loop, import each <product> element from SimpleXML to DOMDocument and appent it as child of $parent node:
foreach( $src->product as $product )
{
$node = dom_import_simplexml( $product );
$node = $dst->importNode( $node, 1 );
$parent->appendChild( $node );
}
Now, your merged XML is ready. You can print it using $dst->saveXML().
I've not be able to product a correctly indented XML. BTW to do this, you can reload-it:
$final = new DOMDocument();
$final->loadXML( $dst->saveXML(), LIBXML_NOBLANKS );
$final->formatOutput = True;
echo $final->saveXML();
Final output:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
<product>
<name>Product 1</name>
</product>
<product>
<name>Product 2</name>
</product>
<product>
<name>Product 3</name>
</product>
<product>
<name>Product 4</name>
</product>
</root>