Return a Specific XML Node Based On URL Parameter

Question

Hopefully I'm asking this question correctly as I'm guessing this will need PHP to achieve.

What I would like to do is return a specific node and all children of XML data via a URL.

example: mydomain.com/myphpfile.php?book_id=1&title="My Book Title"

So by showing the URL above will return the following xml data only

   <Books>
     <book id="1">
        <title>My Book Title</title>
        <author>John Doe</author>
        <genre>Horror</genre>
       <description>Some long text description</description>
     </book>
  </Books>

This is just an example of XML:

 <Books>
     <book id="1">
        <title>My Book Title</title>
        <author>John Doe</author>
        <genre>Horror</genre>
       <description>Some long text description</description>
     </book>

       <book id="2">
        <title>My Book Title</title>
        <author>John Doe</author>
        <genre>Comedy</genre>
        <description>Some long text description</description>  
     </book>

       etc
 </Books>

Thanks splash58 I'll give that a go - I have seen these sorts of replies in other posts but I wasn't sure - not my area of expertise. I'm guessing you add that in your xsl file? — NickP
– NickP, Commented May 5, 2017 at 9:32
I'd be extremely grateful if you could give me an example or point me to somewhere with examples? Again not my area of knowledge :-) — NickP
– NickP, Commented May 5, 2017 at 9:41

splash58 · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-05 09:49:20Z

1

 $book_id = 1;
 $title = 'My Book Title';

 $xml = simplexml_load_string($str);
 // find not suitable items - having incorrect id  or title
 $dels = $xml->xpath('//book[@id != '. $book_id .' or title != "'. $title .'"]');
  // delete found books from xml
  foreach($dels as $node) {
     unset($node->{0});
  }

echo  $xml->saveXML();

answered May 5, 2017 at 9:49

splash58

26.2k3 gold badges25 silver badges35 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

5 Comments

NickP Over a year ago

Thank you! Can't wait to give it a try plus it gives me somewhere to start.Much appreciated

NickP Over a year ago

Just quickly how do you reference the XML file? i.e path to books.xml within your code?

splash58 Over a year ago

use $xml = simplexml_load_file('books.xml ') - php.net/manual/en/function.simplexml-load-file.php

NickP Over a year ago

hey splash58 I changed the hard coded values for $book_id and $title to $book_id = $_GET['id'] and $title = $_GET[''title] now I can change the url parameters and XML data gets updated on refresh - I'm guessing that is correct?

NickP Over a year ago

Damn, I just ran into a problem what if the id contains letters i.e 287AA? This will be the case in my real project

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Return a Specific XML Node Based On URL Parameter

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related