Is there anything wrong with creating an XML feed this way?

Question

This is a fragment of code from one of my projects, I have looked up ways to creating XML documents with php and found suggestions to use SimpleXMLElement or DOMDocument but is there anything wrong with the below approach? it seems much more simple.

Note: the whole point of this question is to get the pros and cons of each approach even though all of them will work.

public function getXML() {

    $sc = function($str) {
        return htmlspecialchars($str, ENT_QUOTES);
    };

    $XMLString = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>'
            . '<playlist>'
            . '<id>' . $sc($this->getID()) . '</id>'
            . '<title>' . $sc($this->getTitle()) . '</title>'
            . '<description>' . $sc($this->getDescription()) . '</description>'
            . '<numVideos>' . $sc($this->getNumOfVideos()) . '</numVideos>';
    foreach ($this->videoList as $v) {
        $XMLString.= '<video>'
                . '<id>' . $sc($v->getID()) . '</id>'
                . '<title>' . $sc($v->getTitle()) . '</title>'
                . '<duration>' . $sc($v->getDuration()) . '</duration>'
                . '<thumbnail>' . $sc($v->getThumbnail()) . '</thumbnail>'
                . '<datePublished>' . $sc($v->getDatePublished()) . '</datePublished>'
                . '<description>' . $sc($v->getDescription()) . '</description>'
                . '<views>' . $sc($v->getViews()) . '</views>'
                . '<favorites>' . $sc($v->getFavorites()) . '</favorites>'
                . '<numRated>' . $sc($v->getNumRaters()) . '</numRated>'
                . '<author>' . $sc($v->getAuthor()) . '</author>'
                . '</video>';
    }
    $XMLString.= "</playlist>";

    return $XMLString
}

Verses

public function getXML() {

    $sc = function($str) {
        return htmlspecialchars($str, ENT_QUOTES);
    };
    $playlist = new SimpleXMLElement("<playlist></playlist>");
    $playlist->addChild("id", $sc($this->getID()));
    $playlist->addChild("title", $sc($this->getTitle()));
    $playlist->addChild("description", $sc($this->getDescription()));
    $playlist->addChild("numVideos", $sc($this->getNumOfVideos()));
    foreach ($this->videoList as $k => $v) {
        $videos = $playlist->addChild("videos");
        $videos->addChild('id', $sc($v->getID()));
        $videos->addChild('title', $sc($v->getTitle()));
        $videos->addChild('duration', $sc($v->getDuration()));
        $videos->addChild('thumbnail', $sc($v->getThumbnail()));
        $videos->addChild('datePublished', $sc($v->getDatePublished()));
        $videos->addChild('description', $sc($v->getDescription()));
        $videos->addChild('views', $sc($v->getViews()));
        $videos->addChild('favorites', $sc($v->getFavorites()));
        $videos->addChild('numRated', $sc($v->getNumRaters()));
        $videos->addChild('author', $sc($v->getAuthor()));
    }


    return $playlist->asXML();
}

@Dagon Thinking "it work, no need to improve it" may be bad IMHO, using SimpleXMLElement is simple as what he did — GotchaRob, May 22 '14 at 02:33
That looks fine. Outputting XML is the same as outputting HTML; there is no reason to build a DOM just to output it. — Sverri M. Olsen, May 22 '14 at 02:33
to old,busy and depressed to bother with anything other than "it works, move on" — , May 22 '14 at 02:34

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 22 '14 at 02:36

1

It will be difficult to read and maintain if you, or better yet -- another developer, ever need to have nested elements and multiple children.

answered May 22 '14 at 02:36

Randell

6,112
6
45
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1

agreed its much cleaner – ericsicons May 22 '14 at 03:58

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 22 '14 at 02:43

0

You should encode your values so that characters like <, ", etc. will not break your xml:

htmlspecialchars($v->getTitle(), ENT_QUOTES)

etc.

answered May 22 '14 at 02:43

jeroen

91,079
21
114
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Is there anything wrong with creating an XML feed this way?

2 Answers2