{"id":17258,"date":"2015-09-20T05:01:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T19:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rjmprogramming.com.au\/ITblog\/?p=17258"},"modified":"2016-12-22T08:49:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T22:49:13","slug":"xml-to-html-php-three-ways-translation-tutorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rjmprogramming.com.au\/ITblog\/xml-to-html-php-three-ways-translation-tutorial\/","title":{"rendered":"XML to HTML PHP Three Ways Translation Tutorial"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"XML<\/a>

XML to HTML PHP Three Ways Translation Tutorial<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the great things about PHP programming is the proliferation of solutions which are out there in the Open Source world for various problems you want to solve. With yesterday’s XML to HTML PHP Simplexml Translation Tutorial<\/a> as shown below, we talked about the HTML5<\/a> Global Attributes under the umbrella of HTML data-* Attribute<\/a> usage, and how a PHP simplexml<\/a> methodology can help solve problems with a web application that translates XML to HTML, trying to retain “data intelligence”.<\/p>\n

We need to tell you that “simplexml”<\/i> should be spelt “SimpleXML”<\/i> … we apologize for this … and, more importantly, would like to present, today, two more ways to help with this web application functionality we are seeking …<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. PHP SimpleXML<\/a> … as shown yesterday … and new to today’s tutorial …<\/li>\n
  2. PHP Expat<\/a> … a lot like Python’s SAX XML Parser (which we discussed at Python HTML Attribute Parsing Primer Tutorial<\/a>‘s link<\/a>) in organizational aspects … and last but not least, and we have used it before is …<\/li>\n
  3. PHP DOM Document<\/a> … is last, but not least … this one we have used before, exemplified by Javascript putElement(s)By via PHP Relative URLs Tutorial<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So which is best? Well, if you want to outlaw PHP eval<\/a> (perhaps for security reasons) then pick PHP Expat<\/a>. You may want to pick PHP Expat, if you have past experience using the Python SAX XML parser.<\/p>\n

    However, PHP DOM Document<\/a> has a lot going for it, in the sense that a lot of what you might expect to do in Javascript DOM coding (but not all) will be available as something you may want to try to do with PHP DOM Document<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    And for situations where you know the XML data structure, you can avoid PHP eval<\/a> usage when you use PHP SimpleXML<\/a> … mind you, that probably applies to all three options.<\/p>\n

    The PHP code you can call xml_to_html.php<\/a> and it changed from yesterday’s purely SimpleXML approach (to also include PHP Expat and PHP DOM Document additional approaches) can be seen at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Please feel free to try these three PHP ways of translating XML to HTML (and trying to retain data intelligence) here<\/a> or an HTML (with PHP iframe) home grown XML to HTML translation live run here<\/a> (as of a couple of days back).<\/p>\n

    \n

    Previous relevant XML to HTML PHP Simplexml Translation Tutorial<\/a> is shown below.<\/p>\n

    \"XML<\/a>

    XML to HTML PHP Simplexml Translation Tutorial<\/p><\/div>\n

    Yesterday’s HTML Data Intelligence More Like XML Primer Tutorial<\/a> as shown below, talked about the HTML5<\/a> Global Attributes under the umbrella of HTML data-* Attribute<\/a> usage.<\/p>\n

    You might remember from that …<\/p>\n

    \n

    Along the way doing this we want to mention PHP’s simplexml methods you can read about at this link<\/a>, which are powerful if you know what the data structure involved is. But today we are writing a home grown translator (or XML parser) to translate XML to HTML in a more “act dumb” generic sense, where you assume no knowledge of the data structure. We acknowledge that it may fall over for some data, especially as the concept is in its infancy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    … and that PHP simplexml<\/a> usage was best “if you know what the data structure involved is”<\/i>. But in that statement we’d neglected the “onion of the 4th dimension”<\/a> wonders of PHP’s eval<\/a> method, and so, today, we allow PHP simplexml methods to team up with PHP eval to preanalyze XML input data to see<\/i> whether it can be parsed without knowing ahead of time what that XML data structure entails … cute, huh?! Think, personally, PHP eval (and Javascript eval) are responsible for more “cute, huh?!’s” than any other bits of functionality. Of course, you must factor in that a lot of people either think of eval as …<\/p>\n