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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-04T00:13:28+00:00

Hello All! I’m active in a fairly large project, but I have limited experience

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Hello All!

I’m active in a fairly large project, but I have limited experience with XML. I am dynamically generating XML, data which may be customed to needs of individual customers. The current solution has been (please don’t hurt me, I’m the new guy) to inline a php template by include(). This is not good practice and I want to move to a better solution.

Structure

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<Product id="">
  <AswItem></AswItem>
  <EanCode></EanCode>
  <ImagePopup></ImagePopup>
  <ImageInfo></ImageInfo>
  <ImageThumbnail></ImageThumbnail>
  <PriceCurrency></PriceCurrency>
  <PriceValueNoTax></PriceValueNoTax>
  <Manufacture></Manufacture>

  <ProductDescriptions>
    <ProductDescrition language="" id="">
      <Name></Name>
      <Description></Description>
      <Color></Color>
      <Size></Size>
      <NavigationLevel1></NavigationLevel1>
      <NavigationLevel2></NavigationLevel2>
      <NavigationLevel3></NavigationLevel3>
      <NavigationLevel4></NavigationLevel4>
    </ProductDescrition>

  </ProductDescriptions>

  <MatrixProducts>
    <AswItem></AswItem>
    <EanCode></EanCode>
    <ParentId></ParentId>
    <PriceCurrency></PriceCurrency>
    <PriceValueNoTax></PriceValueNoTax>
    <ImagePopup></ImagePopup>
    <ImageInfo></ImageInfo>
    <ImageThumbnail></ImageThumbnail>
  </MatrixProducts>
</Product>

This is our main structure. ProductDescriptions and MatrixProducts are basically list items, and may contain none to several children. Our object to be translated into XML is a PHP hash tree with a similar structure but with different keys.

Problem

The problem I have is that I get stuck in the thought process on how dynamically create a tree from an object. My current plan is to have a key conversion table (see Current Solution) but a voice in the back of my head is telling me that it’s not best practice.

Previous solution

populate.php

foreach($products as $product) {
   
    // too much black magic in here
    include($chosenTemplate);

    // $productXMLString is generated in the previous include
    printToXML($productXMLString)
   
}

template.php

<? 
echo "<Product id='{$product['id']}'>";
// etc...
echo "</product>";

As you can see, this is a pretty bad approach. Bad error handling, messy syntax and lot’s of other quirks.

Current solution

    $xmlProductTemplate = simplexml_load_file($currentTemplate);

    foreach($products as $product) {
    $xmlObj = clone $xmlProductTemplate;
        foreach($product as $key => $productValue) { 
    // if value is a <$key>$string</$key>, just input 
    // it into the translated key for the $xmlObject
    if(!is_array($productValue))
        $xmlObj[translateKeyToXML($key)] = $productValue;

    // elseway, we need to call the magic; traverse a child array
    // and still hold true to templateing
    else {
        // what DO you do?
    }
    }
// save xml
fputs($xmlObj->asXML());
    }

How would you go about this and what is best practice? I’m a bit hungry and dehydrated so please tell me if I’m missing something basic.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I am having a bit of trouble understanding what you’re trying to do so excuse me if I’m off here. What it seems like you are trying to do is create an XML file based on a “template” with an ArrayObject containing the attributes and values of the XML elements.

    Perhaps, instead of trying to do that, you just create a SimpleXML object. I think that would be much easier for what you’re trying to do and it adds the value of error catching. See SimpleXML on PHP.net.

    If I am not on the right track with an answer, can you post more source code like the class that contains the values? Thanks.

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