Edit an XML-structure with PHP - php

Question

I am trying to convert an XML-file through a PHP-script. I have the following structure:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<persons>
<person id="1">
<periods>3</periods>
<name id="John"/>
<times>
<time>
<day id="1"/>
<time>35:28</time >
<length>8000</length>
</time>
<time>
<day id="4"/>
<time>8:28</time >
<length>2000</length>
</time>
<time>
<day id="5"/>
<time>3:03</time >
<length>1000</length>
</time>
</times>
</person>
<person id="2">
<periods>3</periods>
<name id="James"/>
<times>
<time>
<day id="3"/>
<time>45:20</time >
<length>15000</length>
</time>
<time>
<day id="5"/>
<time>4:48</time >
<length>1500</length>
</time>
</times>
</person>
etc…
etc…
</persons>
Every person has one or more time-elements. I want to convert the structure so I get only one time-element per person-element (like the structure below).
 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<persons>
<person id="1">
<periods>3</periods>
<name id="John"/>
<times>
<time>
<day id="1"/>
<time>35:28</time >
<length>8000</length>
</time>
</times>
</person>
<person id="1">
<periods>3</periods>
<name id="John"/>
<times>
<time>
<day id="4"/>
<time>8:28</time >
<length>2000</length>
</time>
</times>
</person>
<person id="1">
<periods>3</periods>
<name id="John"/>
<times>
<time>
<day id="5"/>
<time>3:03</time >
<length>1000</length>
</time>
</times>
</person>
<person id="2">
<periods>2</periods>
<name id="James"/>
<times>
<time>
<day id="3"/>
<time>45:20</time >
<length>15000</length>
</time>
</times>
</person>
<person id="2">
<periods>2</periods>
<name id="James"/>
<times>
<time>
<day id="5"/>
<time>4:48</time >
<length>1500</length>
</time>
</times>
</person>
</persons>
Is there a way to do this?

Answer 1

I really know English very bad, but I'll try to answer :)
I think, that for the implementation of this task will suit SimpleXml and Dom extensions.
The following is a simple script that does the required transformation.
input.xml is the file with source text.
The result of the algorithm will be saved to output.xml file.
<?php
$simpleXml = new SimpleXMLElement(file_get_contents('input.xml'));
$personElements = $simpleXml->person;
$personForAppend = array();
$personsForRemove = array();
foreach ($personElements as $personElement) {
$timeElements = $personElement->times->xpath("child::time");
$numberOfTimeElements = count($timeElements);
if ($numberOfTimeElements > 1) {
$personDomElement = dom_import_simplexml($personElement);
$backupTimeDomElementArray = array();
foreach ($timeElements as $timeElement) {
$timeDomElement = dom_import_simplexml($timeElement);
$backupTimeDomElementArray[] = clone $timeDomElement;
$timeDomElement->parentNode->removeChild(
$timeDomElement
);
}
while ($timeDomElement = array_shift($backupTimeDomElementArray)) {
$copyPersonDomElement = clone $personDomElement;
$copyPersonDomElement->getElementsByTagName('times')
->item(0)->appendChild($timeDomElement);
$personForAppend[] = $copyPersonDomElement;
}
$personsForRemove[] = $personDomElement;
}
}
foreach ($personForAppend as $personDomeNode) {
$personDomElement->parentNode->appendChild($personDomeNode);
}
foreach ($personsForRemove as $personDomElement) {
$personDomElement->parentNode->removeChild($personDomElement);
}
$simpleXml->saveXML('output.xml');