Looking for a great SimpleXML tutorial (XML to UL>LI List) [closed]

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I've been looking around for a few days for a nice clean PHP SimpleXML tutorial.

I want to mimic the XML Sitemap of .NET and use a single sitemap xml file to drive my primary navigation, page titles and so on using PHP.

Here's an example of the XML structure: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yy2ykkab.aspx

(but maybe it should mimic a standard sitemap.xml for search engine purposes?)

As an intro, I just want to simply build a multi-level UL > LI for navigation.

Most tutorials I've looked at don't seem to apply and it seems like a very useful idea.

Thanks for any pointers!

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You can solve your problem by transforming the XML of the sitemap into the XML of your UL / LI based navigation. This can be done with XSLT. Here is an example:

XSLT is basically some definition how to perform the transformation that is run in a processor. In the following code, $xslStr contains the stylesheet (defines the transformation) and $xmlStr contains the xml of the sitemap:

$xslt = new XSLTProcessor(); 
$xslt->importStylesheet(new  SimpleXMLElement($xslStr)); 
echo $xslt->transformToXml(new SimpleXMLElement($xmlStr));

The output looks like this:

<ul>
  <li><a href="http://example.com/default.aspx" title="Home">Home</a><ul>
    <li><a href="http://example.com/Products.aspx" title="Our products">Products</a><ul>
      <li><a href="http://example.com/Hardware.aspx" title="Hardware choices">Hardware</a></li>
      <li><a href="http://example.com/Software.aspx" title="Software choices">Software</a></li>
    </ul></li>
    <li><a href="http://example.com/Services.aspx" title="Services we offer">Services</a><ul>
        <li><a href="http://example.com/Training.aspx" title="Training classes">Training</a></li>
        <li><a href="http://example.com/Consulting.aspx" title="Consulting services">Consulting</a></li>
        <li><a href="http://example.com/Support.aspx" title="Supports plans">Support</a></li>
    </ul></li>
  </ul></li>
</ul>

The magic is basically inside the XSL, so here it is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  >
  <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template name="mapNode" match="siteMap">
    <ul>
      <xsl:apply-templates/>
    </ul>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="siteMapNode">
    <li>
      <a href="http://example.com{substring(@url, 2)}" title="{@description}">
        <xsl:value-of select="@title"/>
      </a>
      <xsl:if test="siteMapNode">
        <xsl:call-template name="mapNode"/>
      </xsl:if>
    </li>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The full example:

$xslStr = <<<XSL
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  >
  <xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="yes"/>

  <xsl:template name="mapNode" match="siteMap">
    <ul>
      <xsl:apply-templates/>
    </ul>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="siteMapNode">
    <li>
      <a href="http://example.com{substring(@url, 2)}" title="{@description}">
        <xsl:value-of select="@title"/>
      </a>
      <xsl:if test="siteMapNode">
        <xsl:call-template name="mapNode"/>
      </xsl:if>
    </li>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
XSL;

$xmlStr = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<siteMap>
  <siteMapNode title="Home" description="Home" url="~/default.aspx">
    <siteMapNode title="Products" description="Our products"
      url="~/Products.aspx">
      <siteMapNode title="Hardware" description="Hardware choices"
        url="~/Hardware.aspx" />
      <siteMapNode title="Software" description="Software choices"
        url="~/Software.aspx" />
    </siteMapNode>
    <siteMapNode title="Services" description="Services we offer"
        url="~/Services.aspx">
        <siteMapNode title="Training" description="Training classes"
          url="~/Training.aspx" />
        <siteMapNode title="Consulting" description="Consulting services" 
          url="~/Consulting.aspx" />
        <siteMapNode title="Support" description="Supports plans" 
          url="~/Support.aspx" />
    </siteMapNode>
  </siteMapNode>
</siteMap>
XML;

$xslt = new XSLTProcessor(); 
$xslt->importStylesheet(new  SimpleXMLElement($xslStr)); 
echo $xslt->transformToXml(new SimpleXMLElement($xmlStr)); 

return;

$name = 'home';
$page = $xml->xpath(sprintf("/content/page[@name='%s'][1]", $name));
if (!$page)
{
    throw new Exception(sprintf('Page "%s" not found.', $name));
}
list($page) = $page;

echo $page->asXML();