Selected node not updating

Question

I'm trying to modify a drag and drop uploader. Once the file has been uploaded it shows up on right-hand side. I want to add a description field for each file on the right-hand side. My XML is being written by checking the directory. I am able to save each file's descriptions to the XML. But it overwrites all of my descriptions with "-" if I were to remove or upload a file to the directory. What I'm try to do is upload or remove new item without overwriting my older items descriptions.

PHP- for remove and upload. this function is checking the directory and adding nodes to XML for each file that been uploaded.

if ( $handle = opendir( $path_to_image_dir ) )
{
    while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle)))
    {
        if ( is_file($path_to_image_dir.'/'.$file) && $file != "." && $file != ".." && $file != "Thumb.db" && $file != "Thumbs.db" && $file != ".DS_Store" )
        {
            list( $width, $height ) = getimagesize($path_to_image_dir.'/'.$file);
            $image = $xml_generator->addChild('image');
            $image->addChild('id', 'file'.$i++);
            $image->addChild('name', $file);
            $image->addChild('width', $width);
            $image->addChild('height', $height);
            $image->addChild('description', '-');
        }
    }
    closedir($handle);
}

// Write the XML File to a file.
$xml_generator->asXML('../file.xml');

Description.Php adding the descriptions to each item.

$filename = "../file.xml";

//value form the pop up description form.
$description = $_POST['description'];

// id of input from the write rightside list. 
$hid = $_POST['fileID'];

$xml->image ->description = $description;

$xml = simplexml_load_file($filename);

foreach($xml->image as $image)
{
    // matching the xml id to input id, and then updating the description. 
    if ($image->id == $fileID)
    {
        $image->description = $description;
    }
}

$xml->asXML($filename);

XML

<images>
  <image>
    <id>file0</id>
    <name>image1.jpg</name>
    <height>1435</height>
    <width>2551</width>
    <description>-</description>
  </image>
  <image>
    <id>file1</id>
    <name>Image2.jpg</name>
    <height>1435</height>
    <width>2551</width>
    <description>-</description>
  </image>
</images>

Answer 1

I can see 3 issues with your Description.Php, first you have the variable $hid that should have been called $fileID, and you also call $xml->image ->description = $description; before the simplexml_load_file and last you do not verify if fileID and description are set or not.

So your file should be like this:

$filename = "../file.xml";

//value form the pop up description form.
$description = $_POST['description'];
if (!isset($description))
    die("The field description is not set.");

// id of input from the write rightside list. 
$fileID = $_POST['fileID'];
if (!isset($fileID))
    die("The field fileID is not set.");

$xml = simplexml_load_file($filename);

foreach($xml->image as $image)
{
    // matching the xml id to input id, and then updating the description. 
    if ($image->id == $fileID)
    {
        $image->description = $description;
    }
}

$xml->asXML($filename);

You should also use isset or similar to assure that the POST exist.

In regards your first code, what happens is that without reading the XML you already have you create new nodes for each files over and over and save as a new XML overwriting the old one in order to keep the old descriptions you should do something like this:

if ( $handle = opendir( $path_to_image_dir ) )
{
    while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle)))
    {
        if ( is_file($path_to_image_dir.'/'.$file) && $file != "." && $file != ".." && $file != "Thumb.db" && $file != "Thumbs.db" && $file != ".DS_Store" )
        {
            $fileID = 'file'.$i++;
            list( $width, $height ) = getimagesize($path_to_image_dir.'/'.$file);
            $oldImage = $xml_generator->xpath('//images/image[id="'.$fileID.'"]');
            if (count($oldImage) == 0)
            {
                $image = $xml_generator->addChild('image');
                $image->addChild('id', $fileID);
                $image->addChild('name', $file);
                $image->addChild('width', $width);
                $image->addChild('height', $height);
                $image->addChild('description', '-');
            }
            else
            {
                $oldImage = $oldImage[0];
                $oldImage->name = $file;
                $oldImage->width = $width;
                $oldImage->height = $height;
            }
        }
    }
    closedir($handle);
}

// Write the XML File to a file.
//$xml_generator->asXML('../file.xml');
//In case it saves all in one line and u want 
//to properly format the XML use:
$dom = new DOMDocument('1.0');
$dom->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
$dom->formatOutput = true;
$dom->loadXML($xml_generator->asXML());
echo $dom->save('../file.xml');