converting from XML -> PHP Array -> Json Encode - php

Question

I am setting up an input autocomplete using jquery tokeninput plugin and XML data.
I have an XML file structured as shown:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<majors>
<major program="GCIS">Computing & Info Sci (PHD)</major>
<major program="UINT">Business Administration (AAS)</major>
etc..
</majors>
I load it into PHP:
$majors = simplexml_load_file('../ajax/majors.xml');
I then want to do the following things:
reformat each <major>element into string, including program attribute
(ex: <major program="GCIS">Computing & Info Sci (PHD)</major> turns into string GCIS - Computing & Info Sci (PHD)
run the converted string through a filter function. The filter function checks for strpos($convertedString, $userQuery) and returns true/false if the user's query is present
elements which DO contain the $userQuery are all then encoded with json_encode($arr)
return JSON data.
This is the code I currently have... I can't seem to get the formatting / filtering to work correctly.
if(isset($_POST['query']) ) {
$majors = simplexml_load_file('../ajax/majors.xml');
# iterate through.
foreach ($majors as $key => $value) {
$arr = array('major' => $value['program'] . " - " . $value);
}
# filter the response using our query
$arr = array_filter($arr, 'filterArrayWithQuery');
# JSON-encode the response
$json_response = json_encode($arr);
# Return the response
return $json_response;
}
# ensures that the search query is present
function filterArrayWithQuery( $string ) {
return !strpos( $string, $query ) === false;
}
The end-result JSON output should look like this:
{"major":"GCIS - Computing & Info Sci (PHD)","major":"UINT - Business Administration (AAS)"}

Answer 1

In your iterate through line, you are not appending new entries -
# iterate through.
foreach ($majors as $key => $value) {
$arr[] = array('major' => $value['program'] . " - " . $value);
// ^^
}
With this the output would be-
[{"major":"GCIS - Computing & Info Sci (PHD)"},{"major":"UINT - Business Administration (AAS)"}]

Answer 2

Try this:
function convert($xml) {
# ensures that the search query is present
function filterArrayWithQuery($string) {
static $query = null;
if (is_null($query) && isset($_POST['query'])) $query = $_POST['query'];
return !$query || strpos($string, $_POST['query']) !== false;
}
$majors = simplexml_load_string($xml);
$arr = array();
# iterate through
foreach ($majors as $key => $value) {
$arr[] = array('major' => $value['program'] . " - " . htmlentities($value));
}
# filter the response using our query
$arr = array_filter($arr, 'filterArrayWithQuery');
# Return the response (JSON-encoded)
return json_encode(array('majors' => $arr));
}
$xml = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<majors>
<major program="GCIS">Computing & Info Sci (PHD)</major>
<major program="UINT">Business Administration (AAS)</major>
</majors>
XML;
$_POST['query'] = 'Info';
echo convert($xml);

Answer 3

Thank you to the input I received, however I was able to figure out the solution.
Here is the final PHP script for those interested.
<?php
# vars
$reqMethod = $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'];
$ref = isset( $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] ) ? $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] : "http://www.google.com";
$allowedHosts = array('redacted', 'localhost');
$majors = null;
$arr = array();
$query = isset($_POST['q']) ? $_POST['q'] : "";
# confirm request is being sent from where we allow.
if ( $reqMethod != 'POST' || !in_array(parse_url($ref, PHP_URL_HOST), $allowedHosts) ) {
header('Location: ' . $ref);
} else {
# load in XML
$majors = simplexml_load_file('../ajax/majors.xml');
# iterate through XML. if element contains query, add it to an array.
foreach ($majors as $key => $value) {
if( !stristr( $value, $query ) === false ){
$arr[] = array('major' => $value['program'] . " - " . $value);
}
}
# Return the response - JSON encoded
header('Content-type: application/json');
echo json_encode($arr);
}
?>