Hello all, I am trying to create an interface that will allow someone other than myself to update an xml file which stores company contact info. I have the xml getting pulled in to another page which runs the google maps api to create markers, windows, etc. I would like to append rather than create new every time.

I've been reading up on w3c and browsing tutorials for a few days, but I'm sort of new to this (both php and javascript which I had to use for the google api), so please forgive my ignorance. I'm probably going to have to adjust my xml structure as right now all the address information is stored in a CDATA section. I know how to parse the xml to display it if I were to change the address info to attributes or even child elements, however if there is a simple way to not do this, it would keep me from having to change my js to get the map working.

My xml structure is basically like this:

<markers>
<marker lat="45.4654521" lng="99.9999" company="McDonalds">
 <infowindow>
  <[CDATA [
    <h1>McDonalds</h1><br />
    123 Street Ave<br />
    City, ST 99999<br />
    <a href="www.google.com">google!</a>
    ]]>
  </infowindow>
 </marker>
</markers>

My php script to parse and display the company name of existing entries:

<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_file("rp2.xml");

foreach($xml->marker as $marker)
  {
 
  echo "<table>
  <tr>
  <td width='10%' class='tdnavtitle'>" . $marker['company'] . "</td></tr>
  </table>";
  }
 ?>

And my form, which I know is missing an onsubmit() and the action is blank (missing because I don't know what to do at this point):

	<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="">
	  <table width="100%" border="1">
	    <tr>
		 <td colspan="2" bgcolor="#CCCCCC">Contacts Info Input Form</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
		 <td></td>
		 <td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
		 <td width="12%"><strong>Company Name:</strong></td>
		 <td width="88%"><label>
		   <input name="name" type="text" id="name" />
		   </label></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
		 <td width="12%"><strong>Street Address:</strong></td>
		 <td width="88%"><label>
		   <input name="name" type="text" id="street" />
		   </label></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
		<td width="12%"><strong>City:</strong></td>
		 <td width="88%"><label>
		   <input name="name" type="text" id="city" />
		   </label></td>
		</tr>
	  </table>
	</form>

I guess what I am looking for is:
How do I append my xml file from the php script, when the user has put data in the required fields, and clicks submit? Any help would be very appreciated.

I am sorry, but I do not fully understand what is it that you want to do, you want to keep the current xml data plus the new data or do you want to append to the previews data the new one?

Basically, I want to make this:

<markers>
<marker lat="45.4654521" lng="99.9999" company="McDonalds">
 <infowindow>
  <[CDATA [
    <h1>McDonalds</h1><br />
    123 Street Ave<br />
    City, ST 99999<br />
    <a href="www.google.com">google!</a>
    ]]>
  </infowindow>
 </marker>
</markers>

Into this:

<markers>
<marker lat="45.4654521" lng="99.9999" company="McDonalds">
 <infowindow>
  <[CDATA [
    <h1>McDonalds</h1><br />
    123 Street Ave<br />
    City, ST 99999<br />
    <a href="www.google.com">google!</a>
    ]]>
  </infowindow>
 </marker>
<marker lat="45.4654521" lng="99.9999" company="Taco Bell">
 <infowindow>
  <[CDATA [
    <h1>Taco Bell</h1><br />
    321 Ave St<br />
    City, ST 99999<br />
    <a href="www.yahoo.com">yahoo!</a>
    ]]>
  </infowindow>
 </marker>
</markers>

when the user enters the data into the form, and clicks submit. I think this is called appending. If I have to change the format of my xml I can, although I would prefer not to if it can be helped, as its already taken me a good 2 weeks to get the google maps api to read the xml and create the markers and infowindows.

I see, then yes, you have to append your data.

Steps are basically:
- Loading your current xml
- Adding new data
- Recreating the xml with the new parts

I know it sounds silly, but that those are the basic steps.

You are using simplexml_load_file() this should give you an object from where you can start.

Do you have a function to create the xml? or do you start from a current xml?
If you don't have a function to create the xml, that is where you should start, once you have this function, all you need to do is recreate the new xml with the new information.

You can start with this functions: http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.xmlwriter.php

And then we can guide you if you run into trouble.

I think I may have a function that does that already, if I find it I will post it here so you can start from there.

Regards.