PHP/XML problems

Bruxy · 06-Dec-2005, 01:02 PM #1

I've been teaching myself PHP to do a piece of coursework, which is basically a mini search engine. The database is in MySQL and everything is working fine until I try to do the part which requires me to putput the data from the database in XML format.

I keep getting this error:

Quote:

The XML page cannot be displayed
Cannot view XML input using XSL style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whitespace is not allowed at this location. Error processing resource 'http://localhost:81/xmloutput3.php'. Line 1, Positi...

<?xml version="1.0"?><root><Company><compID>1</compID><name>Sewells Training & Consu...

My code seems fine. Sometimes I'll get an output that gives all the right details just without the XML formatting, then I'll refresh it again and it'll give the above error. Here's the PHP that creates the XML output:

PHP Code:

 
$xml = '<?xml version="1.0"?>';

 
$xml .= '<root>';

 
foreach($CompInfoArray as $CompInfo) {

 
    $xml .= '<Company>';

 
    $xml .= '<compID>'.$CompInfo->XcompID.'</compID>';

    $xml .= '<name>'.XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xname).'</name>';

    $xml .= '<add1>'.XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xadd1).'</add1>';

    $xml .= '<add2>'.XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xadd2).'</add2>';

    $xml .= '<add3>'.XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xadd3).'</add3>';

    $xml .= '<postcode>'.XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xpostcode).'</postcode>';

    $xml .= '<Size>'.$CompInfo->XSize.'</Size>';

    $QueryString = "select compt from keywords, relationships where (relationships.comptID = keywords.comptID) and 

 
(relationships.compID = ".$CompInfo->XcompID.")";

    $KeywordQuery = mysql_query($QueryString);

    $KeywordArray = array();

    while($row2 = mysql_fetch_assoc($KeywordQuery))

        array_push($KeywordArray, $row2['compt']);

    foreach($KeywordArray as $Keyword)

        $xml .= '<compt>'.XmlEntities($Keyword).'</compt>';

 
    $xml .= '</Company>';

 
}

 
$xml .= '</root>';

 
echo($xml);

The thing is my friend's is pretty much identical in final layotu and works fine, but between us we can't figure out for the life of us why it doesn't like mine.

Experienced advice would be much appreciated!

Cheers

php guy · 06-Dec-2005, 01:20 PM #2

Are the browsers you two are using different? If so, what browser are you using?

Bruxy · 06-Dec-2005, 02:55 PM #3

I'm on the latest IE. My friend's used IE, Firefox and Oprah to try it.

I've just run some basic XML test files and they work - simple echo statements with 1 data element and the like are all displayed correctly so there's something bad in the code which I can't spot. Looks like you might need it all:

PHP Code:

  <?php

 
include 'config.php';

include 'opendb.php';

include 'classes.php';

 
function XmlEntities($data) 

{

    $position = 0;

    $length = strlen($data);

    $escapeddata = "";

    for(;$position<$length;) {

        $character = substr($data, $position, 1);

        $code = Ord($character);

        switch($code) {

            case 34:

            $character = '"';

            break;

 
            case 38:

            $character = "&";

            break;

 
            case 39:

            $character = "&apos;";

            break;

 
            case 60:

            $character = "<";

            break;

 
            case 62:

            $character = ">";

            break;

 
            default:

            if ($code<32)

                $character = ("&#".strval($code).";");

            break;

        }

        $escapeddata .= $character;

        $position++;

    }

    return $escapeddata;

}

 
$Query = mysql_query('select * from compinfo');

$CompInfoArray = array();

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($Query)) {

 
    $CompInfo = new CompInfoSet();

    $CompInfo->XcompID = $row['compID'];

    $CompInfo->Xname = $row['name'];

    $CompInfo->Xadd1 = $row['add1'];

    $CompInfo->Xadd2 = $row['add2'];

    $CompInfo->Xadd3 = $row['add3'];

    $CompInfo->Xpostcode = $row['postcode'];

    $CompInfo->XSize = $row['Size'];

    array_push($CompInfoArray, $CompInfo);

 
}

 
$xml = '<?xml version="1.0"?>';

 
$xml .= '<root>';

 
foreach($CompInfoArray as $CompInfo) {

 
    $xml .= '<Company>';

 
    $xml .= '<compID>'.$CompInfo->XcompID.'</compID>';

    $xml .= '<name>'.XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xname).'</name>';

    $xml .= '<add1>'.XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xadd1).'</add1>';

    $xml .= '<add2>'.XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xadd2).'</add2>';

    $xml .= '<add3>'.XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xadd3).'</add3>';

    $xml .= '<postcode>'.XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xpostcode).'</postcode>';

    $xml .= '<Size>'.$CompInfo->XSize.'</Size>';

    $QueryString = "select compt from keywords, relationships where (relationships.comptID = keywords.comptID) and 

 
(relationships.compID = ".$CompInfo->XcompID.")";

    $KeywordQuery = mysql_query($QueryString);

    $KeywordArray = array();

    while($row2 = mysql_fetch_assoc($KeywordQuery))

        array_push($KeywordArray, $row2['compt']);

    foreach($KeywordArray as $Keyword)

        $xml .= '<compt>'.XmlEntities($Keyword).'</compt>';

 
    $xml .= '</Company>';

 
}

 
$xml .= '</root>';

 
echo($xml);

 
include 'closedb.php';

 
?>

php guy · 06-Dec-2005, 03:26 PM #4

This doesn't look like a server side error. I'm not an XML expert, but maybe IE's newest build is picky about the XML structure, and requires each field to be on a new line, but this script echos it all on one line. Try adding a \n at the end of each XML statement. If that doesn't work, the error report will be a little more useful in finding the problem.

Bruxy · 06-Dec-2005, 04:02 PM #5

Quote:

Whitespace is not allowed at this location. Error processing resource 'http://localhost:81/xmloutput3.php'. Line 4, Positi...

<name>Sewells Training & Consultancy</name>
------------------------^

So it doesn't mind the gap before the '&', but it's moans at the one after.

Is it because it's a special character? I though that's what the XmlEntities function was supposed to sort...

Anyway, I'll start looking into it but if you have any ideas let me know. Multi-lining it was suprisingly effective, because the vague error message was really doing my head in, cheers

php guy · 06-Dec-2005, 04:14 PM #6

Ok, the problem is the & sign. Try replacing any "&" character with "&".

A simple str_replace("&", "&", $data); before the "return $escapeddata;" in function XmlEntities should work.

Bruxy · 06-Dec-2005, 04:21 PM #7

Nope, it doesn't like that. Same error comes up.

php guy · 06-Dec-2005, 04:30 PM #8

Exact same? With an & insteed of an &?

If so, then it isn't replacing it right. Take out the str_replace("&", "&", $data); from the function, then replace this line,
$xml .= '<name>'.XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xname).'</name>';
with this,
$xml .= '<name>'.str_replace("&", "&",XmlEntities($CompInfo->Xname)).'</name>';

If it still doesn't like the &, you might have to replace any & character with text "and".

Bruxy · 06-Dec-2005, 04:38 PM #9

Huzzah!

You, sir, are a genius

I'd just better hope no more dodgy characters get put in the database because I don't know enough PHP/XML to put in sufficient validation.

Thanks a lot!

php guy · 06-Dec-2005, 04:43 PM **#10**

No problem.

You might have to add the replace function on the other entries if the "&" shows up in any other parts, but if any other errors show up, we're here.

php guy · 06-Dec-2005, 05:10 PM **#11**

Oh, and you can mark this thread as solved if you go up near the top and click where it says "Thread Tools" then mark it as solved.

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