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XML, XSLT and XPATH Discussion Thread
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Oct 1st, 2009

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Delete XML nodes failing...

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Hi there,

I am trying to delete XML nodes using PHP. Here is a sample of my xml file.

XML, XSLT and XPATH Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<users>
     <user>
     <fullname>PC1</fullname>
     <floor>4</floor>
     </user>
     <user>
     <fullname>PC2</fullname>
     <floor>3</floor>
     </user>
</users>
<users>
     <user>
     <fullname>PC1</fullname>
     <floor>4</floor>
     </user>
     <user>
     <fullname>PC2</fullname>
     <floor>3</floor>
     </user>
</users>

Here is my code so far:

XML, XSLT and XPATH Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<?php
 
$users = new DOMDocument();
$users->load("officedata.xml");
$suser = simplexml_load_file("officedata.xml");
$count = 0;
 
foreach($suser->user as $user) {
 
     if ($user['fullname'] == "PC1") {
    $users->documentElement->removeChild($users-       documentElement->childNodes->item($count));
    $count--;
    }
    $count++
}
$users->save("officedata.xml");
 
?>
<?php

$users = new DOMDocument();
$users->load("officedata.xml");
$suser = simplexml_load_file("officedata.xml");
$count = 0;

foreach($suser->user as $user) {

     if ($user['fullname'] == "PC1") {
    $users->documentElement->removeChild($users-       documentElement->childNodes->item($count));
    $count--;
    }
    $count++
}
$users->save("officedata.xml");

?>

Any idea why this won't work? If I remove the IF statement, all of the XML data gets removed. I am just trying to remove "PC1"

Thanks in advance,

Mapper

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Mapper99

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Oct 2nd, 2009

Re: Delete XML nodes failing...

For those of you could not figure this one out, after a few tries I got it:

XML, XSLT and XPATH Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)

$users = new DOMDocument();
$users->load("officedata.xml");
 
$suser = simplexml_load_file("officedata.xml");
$count = 0;
 
$user = $users->getElementsByTagName("user");
 
foreach($user as $value)
{
   $count++;
   $tasks = $value->getElementsByTagName("fullname");
   $task  = $tasks->item(0)->nodeValue;
 
   if ($task == "PCID4") {
    $users->documentElement->removeChild($users->documentElement->childNodes->item($count));
   }
}
 
$users->save("officedata.xml");
?>

Works like a charm and is a very useful code snippet for deleting XML records using PHP!

Mapper
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Mapper99

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Jan 17th, 2010

Re: Delete XML nodes failing...

This is an absolutely perfect solution! Thanks Mapper!!

disinfor

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Feb 6th, 2010

Actually, this code does not work consistently!

Click to Expand / Collapse Quote originally posted by disinfor ...

This is an absolutely perfect solution! Thanks Mapper!!

I have found that this code is unreliable. Try this and see. Here is the XML:

XML, XSLT and XPATH Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<users>
     <user>
     <fullname>1</fullname>
     <floor>4</floor>
     </user>
     <user>
     <fullname>2</fullname>
     <floor>3</floor>
     </user>
     <user>
     <fullname>3</fullname>
     <floor>3</floor>
     </user>
 
</users>
<users>
     <user>
     <fullname>1</fullname>
     <floor>4</floor>
     </user>
     <user>
     <fullname>2</fullname>
     <floor>3</floor>
     </user>
     <user>
     <fullname>3</fullname>
     <floor>3</floor>
     </user>

</users>

Run the code with this If statement:

XML, XSLT and XPATH Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)

if ($task == "3") {

XML record #2 gets deleted instead of #3!!!

Resulting XML:

XML, XSLT and XPATH Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<users>
     <user>
     <fullname>1</fullname>
     <floor>4</floor>
     </user>
 
     <user>
     <fullname>3</fullname>
     <floor>3</floor>
     </user>
 
</users>
<users>
     <user>
     <fullname>1</fullname>
     <floor>4</floor>
     </user>
     
     <user>
     <fullname>3</fullname>
     <floor>3</floor>
     </user>

</users>

Also, if any of the tags had no data, they get converted to short notation:
<floor></floor> gets changed to <floor/>

This is the strangest thing! Any idea why this is happening?

Thanks!

Mapper

Mapper99

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Feb 9th, 2010

Re: Delete XML nodes failing...

Click to Expand / Collapse Quote originally posted by Mapper99 ...

I have found that this code is unreliable.

Also, if any of the tags had no data, they get converted to short notation:
<floor></floor> gets changed to <floor/>

This is the strangest thing! Any idea why this is happening?

Thanks!

Mapper

After I posted the "works" post, it found it does exactly what you are saying. I couldn't figure out why it's doing what it's doing. I thought maybe it was a white-space issue. The reason the if ($task == "3") deletes record 2 is that the count starts at 0 and not 1, so that makes sense.

I did find another solution that deletes the correct entry. I can't remember where I found it, but I did not write it. So here it goes and it may be a little long, but I'll explain what each section is doing:

XML, XSLT and XPATH Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<form enctype="multipart/form-data" action="action.php" method="POST">
    <select name="caption">
 
    <?php 
  $imagess = simplexml_load_file('xml/file.xml');
  foreach ($imagess->pic as $pic) {
      foreach ($pic->caption as $caption) { 
          echo "<option value='" . $caption . "'>" . $caption . "</option>"; 
      } 
  } 
  ?> 
  	</select>
    <input type="hidden" name="category" value="furniture" />
    <p><input type="submit" value="Delete Entry" /></p>
    </form>
<form enctype="multipart/form-data" action="action.php" method="POST">
    <select name="caption">
    
    <?php 
  $imagess = simplexml_load_file('xml/file.xml');
  foreach ($imagess->pic as $pic) {
      foreach ($pic->caption as $caption) { 
          echo "<option value='" . $caption . "'>" . $caption . "</option>"; 
      } 
  } 
  ?> 
  	</select>
    <input type="hidden" name="category" value="furniture" />
    <p><input type="submit" value="Delete Entry" /></p>
    </form>

The code above is my form that pulls the information I want from the XML (the <caption> node) and echoes it into a drop down select list. This form then submits to the furnituredelete.php which contains the XML removal code.

action.php:

XML, XSLT and XPATH Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
 
$desc = $_POST["caption"]; // gets the caption data from the form
$category = $_POST["category"]; // gets the category data from the from. There are a couple if/else if statements. 
 
if ($category == "furniture") { // if statement, pretty self-explanatory
 
$xmlfile = "xml/file.xml"; 
$xmlstr = file_get_contents("$xmlfile"); 
$xml = new simplexmlElement($xmlstr);
 
$count = 0; //this is important. it sets the count at 0 so it targets the correct node.
foreach ($xml as $pic){ 
if ($pic->caption == $desc){ 
unset($xml->pic[$count]); break; 
} 
$count++; // This is the important line as it updates the node count.
} 
 
echo "<div style='padding:50px;'><p style='font-family:Arial, Helvetica, san-serif; color:#666; font-size:1em;'>" . $desc . " has been deleted.<br /><a href='home.php'>Back to home page</a></p><p><a href='furn.php'>Back to Furniture delete page</a></p>";
 
 
$handle = fopen("$xmlfile", "w"); //opens the xml and sets it for writing
fwrite($handle, $xml->asXML()); //overwrites file and saves
fclose($handle); // closes xml file
 
exit; 
} else {} 
//code actually has 2 more if statements, but it's not necessary for this example.
$desc = $_POST["caption"]; // gets the caption data from the form
$category = $_POST["category"]; // gets the category data from the from. There are a couple if/else if statements. 

if ($category == "furniture") { // if statement, pretty self-explanatory

$xmlfile = "xml/file.xml"; 
$xmlstr = file_get_contents("$xmlfile"); 
$xml = new simplexmlElement($xmlstr);

$count = 0; //this is important. it sets the count at 0 so it targets the correct node.
foreach ($xml as $pic){ 
if ($pic->caption == $desc){ 
unset($xml->pic[$count]); break; 
} 
$count++; // This is the important line as it updates the node count.
} 

echo "<div style='padding:50px;'><p style='font-family:Arial, Helvetica, san-serif; color:#666; font-size:1em;'>" . $desc . " has been deleted.<br /><a href='home.php'>Back to home page</a></p><p><a href='furn.php'>Back to Furniture delete page</a></p>";


$handle = fopen("$xmlfile", "w"); //opens the xml and sets it for writing
fwrite($handle, $xml->asXML()); //overwrites file and saves
fclose($handle); // closes xml file

exit; 
} else {} 
//code actually has 2 more if statements, but it's not necessary for this example.

Here's the XML:

XML, XSLT and XPATH Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<imagess>
 
    <pic>
        <images>images/furniture/2.gif</images>
        <tag>images/sold.png</tag>
		<caption>1950's vintage chair</caption>
    </pic>
    <pic>
        <images>images/furniture/3.gif</images>
        <tag>images/forsale.png</tag>
		<caption>celadon vintage velvet swivel chair</caption>
    </pic>
    <pic>
        <images>images/furniture/4.gif</images>
        <tag>images/forsale.png</tag>
		<caption>bamboo barrel chair </caption>
    </pic>
    <pic>
        <images>images/furniture/5.gif</images>
        <tag>images/sold.png</tag>
		<caption>ivory damasked armoire in aged french blue</caption>
    </pic>
 
</imagess>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<imagess>
    
    <pic>
        <images>images/furniture/2.gif</images>
        <tag>images/sold.png</tag>
		<caption>1950's vintage chair</caption>
    </pic>
    <pic>
        <images>images/furniture/3.gif</images>
        <tag>images/forsale.png</tag>
		<caption>celadon vintage velvet swivel chair</caption>
    </pic>
    <pic>
        <images>images/furniture/4.gif</images>
        <tag>images/forsale.png</tag>
		<caption>bamboo barrel chair </caption>
    </pic>
    <pic>
        <images>images/furniture/5.gif</images>
        <tag>images/sold.png</tag>
		<caption>ivory damasked armoire in aged french blue</caption>
    </pic>

</imagess>

Hopefully that helps you out. I'm pretty new at PHP and what not, but was able to adjust the code to get it to work for my needs.

Last edited by disinfor; Feb 9th, 2010 at 12:36 pm. Reason: update

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