PHP - Generate XML in loop using DOM library - php

Question

I'm retrieving a set of contact records from a database query, and I then need to generate an XML response that is returned to the browser.
The PHP loop that retrieves the records looks like this:
foreach($contacts as $contact){
$firstName = $record->getField('first') ;
$lastName = $record->getField('last') ;
$recnum++; }
and the XML I need to generate looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<contacts>
<contact>
<first_name>Penny</first_name>
<last_name>Lancaster</last_name>
</contact>
<contact>
<first_name>Geoff</first_name>
<last_name>McDermott</last_name>
</contact>
</contacts>
I've been able to create a single hardcoded XML response before using:
$doc = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'utf-8');
$doc->formatOutput = true;
$root = $doc->createElement('error');
$doc->appendChild($root);
$desc = $doc->createElement('description', $error);
$root->appendChild($desc);
echo $doc->saveXML();
but I can't work out the syntax to incorporate this into a loop and generate the XML dynamically.

Answer 1

It's pretty simple:
$doc = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'utf-8');
$doc->formatOutput = true;
$contactsElement = $doc->createElement('contacts');
foreach($contacts as $contact){
// your loop, is working? What is $record?
$firstName = $record->getField('first') ;
$lastName = $record->getField('last') ;
$recnum++; // is useful for something?
$contactElement = $doc->createElement('contact');
$firstNameElement = $doc->createElement('first_name', $firstName);
$lastNameElement = $doc->createElement('last_name', $lastName);
$contactElement->appendChild($firstNameElement);
$contactElement->appendChild($lastNameElement);
$contactsElement->appendChild($contactElement);
}
echo $doc->saveXML();