How would I echo this XML data from a database using PHP simpleXML?

Question

I am using a formbuilder plugin in Wordpress which submits the form input to the database as XML data. Now I would like to fetch that data and have it displayed in another page. I have started trying simpleXML to achieve this but now I have hit a road bump.

The XML data that appears in each row of the database follows this format:

<form>
    <FormSubject>Report</FormSubject>
    <FormRecipient>****@***.com</FormRecipient>
    <Name>admin</Name>
    <Department>test</Department>
    <Value>1000</Value>
    <Comments>test</Comments>
    <Page>http://***.com</Page>
    <Referrer>http://****.com</Referrer>
</form>

I have previously managed to fetch the data that I need using simpleXML from an XML string of the same markup which is in the database but now my question is, how do I do this with a loop for each row in the database?

When the following code is run, wordpress displays a blank page meaning that there is an error:

<?php
global $wpdb;
$statistics = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM wpformbuilder_results WHERE form_id = '00000000000000000001';");
echo "<table>";
foreach($statistics as $statistic){
$string = $statistic->xmldata
$xml = simplexml_load_string($string);
$Name = (string) $xml->Name;
$Department = (string) $xml->Department;
$Value = (string) $xml->Value;
$Comments = (string) $xml->Comments;

echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>".$statistic->timestamp."</td>";
echo "<td>".$Name."</td>";
echo "<td>".$Department."</td>";
echo "<td>".$Value."</td>";
echo "<td>".$Comments."</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";

?>

david.binda · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-27 10:56:09Z

2

You are missing ; on line 5

$string = $statistic->xmldata

Should be

$string = $statistic->xmldata;

You should consider enablign WP_DEBUG constant in wp-config.php file. Insert following code to your wp-config.php, just before /* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

For more tips on debugging, read the codex

Formbuilder users custom function to extract XML data in formbuilder_xml_db_results Class:

function xmltoarray($xml)
    {
        $xml = trim($xml);

        $match = "#<([a-z0-9_]+)([ \"']*[a-z0-9_ \"']*)>(.*)(</\\1>)#si";
        $offset = 0;

        if(!preg_match($match, $xml, $regs, false, $offset)) {
            return($xml);
        }

        while(preg_match($match, $xml, $regs, false, $offset))
        {
            list($data, $element, $attribs, $content, $closing) = $regs;
            $offset = strpos($xml, $data) + strlen($data);

            $tmp = $this->xmltoarray($content);
            $result[$element] = $tmp;

        }

        return($result);
    }

Define that function in your code (before global $wpdb; you don't have to be afraid of same name as that function is defined in Class) and than modify your code in this way:

<?php
global $wpdb;
$statistics = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM wpformbuilder_results WHERE form_id = '00000000000000000001';");
echo "<table>";
foreach($statistics as $statistic){
$xml = xmltoarray( $statistic->xmldata );
$Name = (string) $xml['form']['Name'];
$Department = (string) $xml['form']['Department'];
$Value = (string) $xml['form']['Value'];
$Comments = (string) $xml['form']['Comments'];

echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>".$statistic->timestamp."</td>";
echo "<td>".$Name."</td>";
echo "<td>".$Department."</td>";
echo "<td>".$Value."</td>";
echo "<td>".$Comments."</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";

?>

EDIT: edited $xml['Comments'] to $xml['form']['Comments'] and analogous

edited Jan 27, 2013 at 10:56

answered Jan 27, 2013 at 9:25

david.binda

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2 Comments

mhcodner Over a year ago

I've added the semi colon but now with the debugging i get three distinct errors that constantly repeat themselves: Warning: simplexml_load_string(): Entity: line 1: parser error : String not started expecting ' or " in /###.php on line 34 , Warning: simplexml_load_string(): <?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" ?> in /###.php on line 34 and Warning: simplexml_load_string(): ^ in /###.php on line 34 where line 34 is the line that says $xml = simplexml_load_string($string);

david.binda Over a year ago

I've modified my answer to match your new problem. The problem is that stored data are not in proper XML format...

mhcodner · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-27 10:59:45Z

0

I fixed it by stripping the backslashes from the XML string using stripslashes()

answered Jan 27, 2013 at 10:59

mhcodner

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