Question

I spent days figuring and reading about how to produce an xml file from a table in my db. I got it working fine and produces a valid xml file for me to parse. This file contains over 13000 records and I only need to pull records to display to the user where a certain xml field (category) contains data. Can this be done? The only other way I can think is to filter those records through the php script that is pulling the records and producing the xml file. Any assistance is appreciated. My code is below that I am using to create the xml and the client side jquery code to display the xml contents. I know my jquery script only is showing 2 of the xml fields because of testing.

Thanks.

PHP code to produce the xml file

$query = "SELECT name,test_code,cpt_code,components FROM tm_test";
$result = mysql_query($query);


$doc = new DomDocument('1.0');

header('Content-Type: application/xml; charset=ISO-8859-1');

// create root node
$root = $doc->createElement('tests');
$root = $doc->appendChild($root);

while($array = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {

// add node for each row
$occ = $doc->createElement('test');
$occ = $root->appendChild($occ);

$child = $doc->createElement('name');
$child = $occ->appendChild($child);
$value = $doc->createTextNode($array['name']);
$value = $child->appendChild($value);

$child = $doc->createElement('test_code');
$child = $occ->appendChild($child);
$value = $doc->createTextNode($array['test_code']);
$value = $child->appendChild($value);

$child = $doc->createElement('cpt_code');
$child = $occ->appendChild($child);
$value = $doc->createTextNode($array['cpt_code']);
$value = $child->appendChild($value);

$child = $doc->createElement('components');
$child = $occ->appendChild($child);
$value = $doc->createTextNode($array['components']);
$value = $child->appendChild($value);

$child = $doc->createElement('method');
$child = $occ->appendChild($child);
$value = $doc->createTextNode($array['method']);
$value = $child->appendChild($value);

$child = $doc->createElement('clinical_indication');
$child = $occ->appendChild($child);
$value = $doc->createTextNode($array['clinical_indication']);
$value = $child->appendChild($value);

$child = $doc->createElement('category');
$child = $occ->appendChild($child);
$value = $doc->createTextNode($array['category']);
$value = $child->appendChild($value);
}

$doc->save('testlist.xml');

echo $doc->saveXML();
?>

jQuery script to display all records

  $(document).ready(function(){

                            $.ajax({
                                   type: "GET",
                                   url: "testlist.xml",
                                   dataType: "xml",
                                   success: parseXml
                                   });
                            function parseXml(xml) {
                            $(xml).find('test').each(function(){
                                  $("#testList").append('<li><div   data-role="collapsible" data-collapsed="true" data-theme="b"><h3>' + $(this).find("name").text() + '</h3>' + '<p>' + $(this).find("test_code").text() + '</p></div></li>');

                                                     });
                            }
                            });

Answer 1

Just pass the desired category in your ajax call to PHP.

$.ajax({
    type: "GET",
    url: "testlist.xml",
    data: "category=the_category_you_want",
    dataType: "xml",                                   
    success: parseXml
});

The category will be available to your PHP script as $_GET['category'].

Change your SQL query to filter by this category using a WHERE clause:

$query = "SELECT name,test_code,cpt_code,components FROM tm_test   
          WHERE category = ?";

and bind the variable value (to prevent SQL injection).