Question

I would like to do a basic search functionality but the data I am using is XML – How would I got about making a search form that can filter the data from the XML and display it in HTML whether it meets the HTML form’s criteria.

I have not yet tried to use a HTML form to display the XML data as I do not know how to do this, therefore I am asking for direction or examples that may be elsewhere in the web, as I ma having trouble doing so.

   <UKPRN>10004048</UKPRN>

   <ACCOMURL>http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/accommodation/</ACCOMURL>

   <PRIVATELOWER>5000</PRIVATELOWER>

   <PRIVATEUPPER>8300</PRIVATEUPPER>

   <COUNTRY>XF</COUNTRY>

   <NSP>1</NSP>

   <Q24>51</Q24>

   <Q24POP>2242</Q24POP>

   <KISCOURSE>

      <TITLE>FdSc Crime Scene and Forensic Investigation</TITLE>

      <UCASCOURSEID>F411</UCASCOURSEID>

      <VARFEE>10</VARFEE>

      <FEETBC>1</FEETBC>

      <WAIVER>0</WAIVER>

      <MEANSSUP>0</MEANSSUP>

      <OTHSUP>0</OTHSUP>

      <ENGFEE>5700</ENGFEE>

   </KISCOURSE>

There is just a basic look at my XML set up – any help is appreciated!

EDIT: Further to the question asked below, The XML data is structured as above, and I wish for some PHP or Html Form to search the Title of the title KISCOURSE and then display relevant searches.

Answer 1

Since this is rather a bigger project than a short question my answer just aims to give you some ideas on how I would approach this. Tell me whether you think it is helpful and if you have further questions.

Assuming that you have your data in one XML file, e.g. data.xml, and you have access to PHP and its XSLTProcessor class I would do the following:

1. Create an HTML form with inputs for the fields you want to query
2. Write an XSL transformation to filter data.xml on the wanted parameters
3. Write a PHP script that gets parameters from the HTML form, applies them to the transformation, executes it and outputs the result

Tell me if you find this approach suitable for you and I can add more detail. Good luck!