getting summarized nodes instead of separate nested nodes

Question

I've a third party xml file like this. It's a movie app that organizes which scene is shot on which shooting day.

<schedule>

<DayBreak>
    <AutoText>true</AutoText>
    <Text></Text>
</DayBreak>

<Scene>
    81
</Scene>

<DayBreak>
    <AutoText>false</AutoText>
    <Text>myday</Text>
</DayBreak>

<Scene>
    82
</Scene>

<Scene>
    85
</Scene>

<schedule /> 

As you see, there is a new day, then scene 81 is shot, then comes another day, where scene 82 and scene 85 are shot.

(If you ask me, I wouldn't structure the xml like this, but that's what I got from the other guys.)

Now, if I parse this xml file using PHP's simplexml, I get these arrays:

                [DayBreak] => Array
                    (
                        [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                            (
                                [AutoText] => true
                                [Text] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                                    (
                                    )

                            )

                        [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                            (
                                [AutoText] => false
                                [Text] => myday
                            )
                        )

                [Scene] => Array
                    (
                        [0] => 81
                        [1] => 82
                        [2] => 85
                    )

                [EndShooting] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                    (
                    )

As you see, I can't parse anymore which scene is shot an which day as the array is summarized.

What should I do?

thanks, Matt

Answer 1

One way would be to loop through the schedule child nodes from top to bottom, fixing the XML along the way. When you stumble upon a DayBreak node, create a new Day container node at that spot and put the DayBreak into that Day node. Scene nodes that follow will also go into that node.

This way you will have a better structure to work with.

<?php
$xml = <<<END
<schedule>

<DayBreak>
    <AutoText>true</AutoText>
    <Text></Text>
</DayBreak>

<Scene>
    81
</Scene>

<DayBreak>
    <AutoText>false</AutoText>
    <Text>myday</Text>
</DayBreak>

<Scene>
    82
</Scene>

<Scene>
    85
</Scene>

</schedule>
END;
// Note: Last line in XML edited (used to be "<schedule />")

// Load
$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadXml($xml);

// Grab schedule node
$schedule = $dom->getElementsByTagName('schedule')->item(0);

// Loop through the child nodes of schedule
$i = 0;
while ($i < $schedule->childNodes->length) {
    $childNode = $schedule->childNodes->item($i);

    switch ($childNode->nodeName) {
        case 'DayBreak':
            $dayBreak = $childNode;
            // Brand new day. Wrap DayBreak node in Day node, into which the
            // following scene nodes will be moved
            $day = $dom->createElement('Day');
            $schedule->insertBefore($day, $dayBreak);
            $day->appendChild($dayBreak);
            break;

        case 'Scene':
            $sceneNode = $childNode;
            // A scene shot the current day. Move the node into the day node.
            $day->appendChild($childNode);
            continue 2; // Don't increase $i as node was moved out of 'schedule'
    }

    $i++;
}

// echo $dom->saveXML(); // Uncomment to view XML
var_dump(new SimpleXMLElement($dom->saveXML()));

Output:

object(SimpleXMLElement)#5 (1) {
  ["Day"]=>
  array(2) {
    [0]=>
    object(SimpleXMLElement)#6 (2) {
      ["DayBreak"]=>
      object(SimpleXMLElement)#9 (2) {
        ["AutoText"]=>
        string(4) "true"
        ["Text"]=>
        object(SimpleXMLElement)#10 (0) {
        }
      }
      ["Scene"]=>
      string(8) "
    81
"
    }
    [1]=>
    object(SimpleXMLElement)#8 (2) {
      ["DayBreak"]=>
      object(SimpleXMLElement)#9 (2) {
        ["AutoText"]=>
        string(5) "false"
        ["Text"]=>
        string(5) "myday"
      }
      ["Scene"]=>
      array(2) {
        [0]=>
        string(8) "
    82
"
        [1]=>
        string(8) "
    85
"
      }
    }
  }
}

Edit

You can then loop through the days and scenes using the DOMDocument:

foreach ($dom->getElementsByTagName('Day') as $day) {
    echo "Day:";
    foreach ($day->getElementsByTagName('Scene') as $scene) {
        echo ' ' . trim($scene->nodeValue);
    }
    echo PHP_EOL;
}

or a SimpleXMLElement object, if you are more familiar with that:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($dom->saveXML());

foreach ($xml->Day as $day) {
    echo "Day:";
    foreach ($day->Scene as $scene) {
        echo ' ' . trim($scene);
    }
    echo PHP_EOL;
}

Output (for both DOMDocument and SimpleXMLElement examples):

Day: 81
Day: 82 85