PHP building XML files using DOMDocument in batches - php

Question

I have a problem when looping through data and creating XML files using DOMDocument. It all worked fine until I decided to run this script in batches. Now I have multiple '<?xml version="1.0"?>' starting tags in my XML files, looks like one for each batch. There are also more products nodes being generated than there are products. Can anyone help.
//get products
$productsObj = new Products($db,$shopKeeperID);
//find out how many products
$countProds = $productsObj->countProducts();
$productBatchLimit = 3; //keep low for testing
//create new file
$file = 'products/'. $products . '.xml';
$fh = fopen($file, 'a');
//create XML document object model (DOM)
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->formatOutput = true;
$counter = 1;
$r = $doc->createElement( "products" );
$doc->appendChild( $r );
for ($i = 0; $i < $countProds; $i += $productBatchLimit) {
$limit = $productBatchLimit*$counter;
$products = $productsObj->getShopKeeperProducts($i, $limit);
$prod = '';
//loop through each product to create well formed XML
foreach( $products as $product ){
$prod = $doc->createElement( "offer" );
$offerID = $doc->createElement( "offerID" );
$offerID->appendChild($doc->createTextNode( $product['prod_id'] ));
$prod->appendChild( $offerID );
$productName = $doc->createElement( "name" );
$productName->appendChild($doc->createTextNode( $product['productName'] ));
$prod->appendChild( $productName );
$r->appendChild( $prod );
$strxml = $doc->saveXML();
}
fwrite($fh, $strxml);
$counter++;
}
fclose($fh);

Answer 1

I am using this command that erases all strings like <?something?>.
$text = preg_replace( '/<\?[^\?>]*\?>/', ' ', $text);
First erase them all and then put one at the beginning.

Answer 2

I did just this a while ago, I can't see exactly whats going wrong. But I can provide the function I built for a site for you to look at.
This function worked 100% fine and as expected. It created a perfect XML document and formatted it perfectly. I hope this helps you find your problem.
function create_xml_file()
{
/* create a dom document with encoding utf8 */
$domtree = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'utf-8');
/* create the root element of the xml tree */
/* Data Node */
$xmlRoot = $domtree->createElement("data");
/* append it to the document created */
$xmlRoot = $domtree->appendChild($xmlRoot);
/* Set our Prices in our <data> <config> node */
$config_node = $domtree->createElement("config");
$config_node = $xmlRoot->appendChild($config_node);
// Add - node to config
$config_node->appendChild($domtree->createElement('config_node', '123456'));
$config_node->appendChild($domtree->createElement('some_other_data', '123456'));
/* Create prices Node */
$price_node = $domtree->createElement('price');
$price_node = $config_node->appendChild($price_node);
/* Black Price Node */
$black_node = $price_node->appendChild($domtree->createElement('black'));
foreach ($p->List_all() as $item):
if ($item['color'] == 'black'):
$black_node->appendChild($domtree->createElement($item['type'], $item['price']));
endif;
endforeach;
/* Create galleries Node */
$galleries_node = $domtree->createElement("galleries");
$galleries_node = $xmlRoot->appendChild($galleries_node);
foreach ($i->List_all() as $image):
/* Our Individual Gallery Node */
$gallery_node = $domtree->createElement("gallery");
$gallery_node = $galleries_node->appendChild($gallery_node);
$gallery_node->appendChild($domtree->createElement('name', $image['name']));
$gallery_node->appendChild($domtree->createElement('filepath', $image['filepath']));
$gallery_node->appendChild($domtree->createElement('thumb', $image['thumb']));
endforeach;
/* Format it so it is human readable */
$domtree->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
$domtree->formatOutput = true;
/* get the xml printed */
//echo $domtree->saveXML();
$file = 'xml/config.xml';
$domtree->save($file);
}
I hope this helps you find your answer. I commented it well for easy understanding.

Answer 3

I simply changed
$strxml = $doc->saveXML();
and
fwrite($fh, $strxml);
To
$doc->save($file);
and it works perfectly.