Question

I am creating an XML file from scratch using PHP’s SimpleXML Object. But I am getting this error when validating the document: ‘Can not find declaration of element “example”.’

Here is the code that is creating the XML document:

    $xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<example></example>');
    $xml->addChild('producers');

    foreach($producers as $i=>$producer){
       $name = get_the_title($producer->ID);
       $owner = get_post_meta($producer->ID, '_producer_contact_name', true);
       $phone = get_post_meta($producer->ID, '_producer_phone', true);
       $fax = get_post_meta($producer->ID, '_producer_fax', true);
       $email = get_post_meta($producer->ID, '_producer_email', true);
       $website = get_post_meta($producer->ID, '_producer_website', true);
       $address = get_post_meta($producer->ID, '_producer_address', true);

       $xml->producers->addChild('producer');
       $xml->producers->producer[$i]->addChild('name', $name);
       $xml->producers->producer[$i]->addChild('owner', $owner);
       $xml->producers->producer[$i]->addChild('phone', $phone);
       $xml->producers->producer[$i]->addChild('fax', $fax);
       $xml->producers->producer[$i]->addChild('email', $email);
       $xml->producers->producer[$i]->addChild('website', $website);
       $xml->producers->producer[$i]->addChild('civic', $address[0]); 
       $xml->producers->producer[$i]->addChild('mailing', $address[1]); 
       $xml->producers->producer[$i]->addChild('town', $address[2]); 
       $xml->producers->producer[$i]->addChild('province', $address[3]); 
       $xml->producers->producer[$i]->addChild('postal', $address[4]);           
    }

    $open = fopen($file, 'w') or die ("File cannot be opened.");
    fwrite($open, $xml->asXML());
    fclose($open);

The XML that is produced is this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
   <example>
      <producers>
         <producer>
            <name></name>
            <phone></phone>
            <fax></fax>
            <email></email>
            <website></website>
            <civic></civic>
            <mailing></mailing>
            <town></town>
            <province></province>
            <postal></postal>
         </producer>
      </producers>
   </example>

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks

Answer 1

An XML file needs something to validate it against, a Document Type Definition (DTD) or an XML Schema. You’re not providing any, so validation (i.e., checking if the structure/content of the XML document conforms to the rules set forth in the DTD/Schema) is impossible.

Or did you just wish to check for well-formedness (i.e., checking that all tags are closed properly, that there are no illegal characters anywhere etc.)?