Place a php function into an XML request - php

Question

I am trying to add the results from the while loop into an xml request. But it is not showing up correctly.. Below I first create a function, then I try to make that function work inside the xml request curl tag. It is hard to explain and easier to see:
//Getting room groups
function roomGroups(){
$i = 2;
while(isset($_GET['ad'.$i]))
{
$adult = $_GET['ad'.$i];
$child = $_GET['ch'.$i];
$childAge = $_GET['ch'.$i];
echo "<RoomGroup><Room><numberOfAdults>".$adult."</numberOfAdults><numberOfChildren>".$child."<childAges>".$childAge."</childAges></Room></RoomGroup>";
$i++;
}}
//Room availablility Request
$ch1 = curl_init();
$fp1 = fopen('room_request.xml','w');
curl_setopt($ch1, CURLOPT_URL, "http://api.ean.com/ean-services/rs/hotel/v3/avail?cid=379849&minorRev=13&apiKey=4sr8d8bsn75tpcuja6ypx5g3&locale=en_US&currencyCode=USD&customerIpAddress=67.20.125.193&customerUserAgent=Mozilla/5.0+(Windows+NT+6.1)+AppleWebKit/535.11+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/17.0.963.79+Safari/535.11&customerSessionId=0ABAA856-8502-E913-6982-E2210F904B72&xml=<HotelRoomAvailabilityRequest><hotelId>".$hid."</hotelId><arrivalDate>".$arrivalDate."</arrivalDate><departureDate>".$departingDate."</departureDate><RoomGroup><Room><numberOfAdults>".$adults."</numberOfAdults><numberOfChildren>".$children."</numberOfChildren><childAges>".$ages."</childAges></Room></RoomGroup>".roomGroups()."<includeDetails>true</includeDetails></HotelRoomAvailabilityRequest>");
curl_setopt($ch1, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch1, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Accept: application/xml'));
curl_setopt($ch1, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
curl_setopt($ch1, CURLOPT_FILE, $fp1);
$val1 = curl_exec($ch1);
curl_close($ch1);//Close curl session
fclose($fp1); //Close file overwrite
$avail = simplexml_load_file('room_request.xml');
//The url that is passing the data looks like this: /hotel_request.php?hid=370111&d=05/02/2012&a=04/30/2012&r=3&ad2=2&ch2=22=16,17,&ad3=3&ch3=33=7,13,16,&
I get nothing back. Any help on this would be GREATLY appreciated!

Answer 1

roomGroups() doesn't return anything, it just echos to the screen.
Try something like this:
function roomGroups(){
$i = 2;
$ret = '';
while(isset($_GET['ad'.$i])){
$adult = $_GET['ad'.$i];
$child = $_GET['ch'.$i];
$childAge = $_GET['ch'.$i];
$ret .= "<RoomGroup><Room><numberOfAdults>".$adult."</numberOfAdults><numberOfChildren>".$child."<childAges>".$childAge."</childAges></Room></RoomGroup>";
$i++;
}
return $ret;
}