crazy parse error

I'm getting a parse error for this line of code:

if (strpos($file_line, '<?xml') !== false)

And I can;t figure out why...I tried changing the single quotes to double quotes (for every strpos() call), but that just gave me a parse error for this line:

?>

The relevent code is as follows:

<?

// Start of functions

function readThisFile($xml_file)
{
if(!file_exists($xml_file))
{
die("The data file does not exist.");
}

chmod($xml_file, 0777);

if(!$handle = fopen($xml_file,"r"))
{
die("There was a problem opening the data file.");
}

while(!feof($handle))
{
$file_line = fgets($handle, 4096);

if (strpos($file_line, '<?xml') !== false)
{
continue;
}
elseif (strpos($file_line, '<!DOCTYPE') !== false)
{
continue;
}
elseif (strpos($file_line, '<reference>') !== false)
{
continue;
}
elseif (strpos($file_line, '</contact>') !== false)
{
continue;
}
elseif (strpos($file_line, '</reference>') !== false)
{
continue;
}

$content .= $file_line;
}

fclose($handle);

return $content;
}


function getElementInfo($element_name,$data_text)
{
if (empty($data_text))
{
return false;
}

$pattern = "/<" . $element_name . ">.*<\/" . $element_name . ">/";

preg_match($pattern, $data_text, $matches);

$pattern2 = "<" . $element_name . ">";
$matches[0] = str_replace($pattern2, "", $matches[0]);

$pattern3 = "</" . $element_name . ">";
$matches[0] = str_replace($pattern3, "", $matches[0]);

return trim($matches[0]);
}

?>

Plus, I;ve already used this code once before, and had no problems.

Anyone see what the problem is here? thanks.

You forgot to include the actual error. It all works fine for me, but I don't have shorttags enabled and that might be part of the issue. Try separating the tag:

if (strpos($file_line, '<' . '?xml') !== false)

To my knowledge, tags should always be able to be printed in a string regardless of what tags are enabled. Seeing the error would help.

it's just a plain parse error, nothing special or helpful in there:

Parse error: parse error in /var/www/html/blah/blah/modify_contact.php on line 107

did you try the idea ralph l mayo suggested? to my knowledge it wont help becuase strings should be treated ok, but its worth a go as I cant see anything wrong with your code.

You forgot to include the actual error. It all works fine for me, but I don't have shorttags enabled and that might be part of the issue. Try separating the tag:

if (strpos($file_line, '<' . '?xml') !== false)

Tried this, and it doesn;t help.

did you try the idea ralph l mayo suggested? to my knowledge it wont help becuase strings should be treated ok, but its worth a go as I cant see anything wrong with your code.

just tried and it was a no-go...;)

There is some PHP, HTML and javascript that comes before these functions, could they somehow be causing the error....but I can;t see how really...I can post it here if you think it will help

I can post it here if you think it will help

It might. That line all by itself does not complain on my server, when I replace $file_line with a short text string.
I'm thinking it might have to do with parsing the actual file handle - maybe something with character set. Can we see a sample of the XML file too? Does it happen consistently with different source xml files?

sample of xml file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE reference SYSTEM "contact_reference.dtd">
<reference>
<contact>
<firstname>blah</firstname>
<lastname>blah</lastname>
<business>blah</business>
<email>blah</email>
<website>blah</website>
<phone>blah</phone>
<address>
<street>blah</street>
<city>blah</city>
<state>blah</state>
<zip>blah</zip>
<country>blah</country>
</address>
</contact>
<contact>
<firstname>blah</firstname>
<lastname>blah</lastname>
<business>blah</business>
<email>blah</email>
<website>blah</website>
<phone>blah</phone>
<address>
<street>blah</street>
<city>blah</city>
<state>blah</state>
<zip>blah</zip>
<country>blah</country>
</address>
</contact>
</reference>

dtd file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!ELEMENT reference (contact*)>
<!ELEMENT contact (firstname,lastname,business,email,website,phone,address)>
<!ELEMENT firstname (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT lastname (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT business (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT email (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT website (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT phone (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT address (street,city,state,zip,country)>
<!ELEMENT street (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT city (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT state (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT zip (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT country (#CDATA)>

And this is the only xml file i have available that is written for this dtd...

hope this helps..

Edit: also, please remember that I used the above PHP code in a different file to parse the same xml document, and IT WORKED.

It's just not working in this particular file....Here is the entire file:

<?

$c_name = $_GET['c_name'];

if (strpos($c_name, ',') !== false)
{
$c_name_array = explode(",", $c_name);
$ln = trim($c_name_array[0]);
$fn = trim($c_name_array[1]);
}
else
{
$fn = trim($c_name);
$ln = "";
}

$uri = rtrim(dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']), '/\\');

$xml_file = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/" . $uri . "/" . "contact_reference.xml";

$content2 = readThisFile($xml_file);

$contact_array2 = preg_split("/<contact>/", $content2);
unset($contact_array2[0]);

foreach ($contact_array2 as $key => $val)
{
$the_fn = getElementInfo("firstname",$val);
$the_ln = getElementInfo("lastname",$val);

if ($ln == $the_ln && $fn == $the_fn)
{
$b_name = getElementInfo("business",$val);
$the_email = getElementInfo("email",$val);
$the_website = getElementInfo("website",$val);'
$the_phone = getElementInfo("phone",$val);
$the_street = getElementInfo("street",$val);
$the_city = getElementInfo("city",$val);
$the_state = getElementInfo("state",$val);
$the_zip = getElementInfo("zip",$val);
$the_country = getElementInfo("country",$val);

break;
}
}

?>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" />

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en" dir="ltr">

<head>

<title>Modify Contact</title>

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="contact_reference.css" />

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />

<body>

<form action="contact_reference.php" method="post">

<p>First Name: <input type="text" name="first_name" size="25" value="<? echo $the_fn; ?>"></p>
<p>Last Name: <input type="text" name="last_name" size="25" value="<? echo $the_ln; ?>"></p>
<p>Business Name: <input type="text" name="business_name" size="25" value="<? echo $b_name; ?>"></p>
<p>E-mail Address: <input type="text" name="email" size="25" value="<? echo $the_email; ?>"></p>
<p>Website Address: <input type="text" name="website" size="25" value="<? echo $the_website; ?>"></p>
<p>Phone Number: <input type="text" name="phone" size="25" value="<? echo $the_phone; ?>"></p>
<p>Street Address: <input type="text" name="street" size="25" value="<? echo $the_street; ?>"></p>
<p>City: <input type="text" name="city" size="25" value="<? echo $the_city; ?>"></p>
<p>State/Region: <input type="text" name="state" size="20" value="<? echo $the_state; ?>"></p>
<p>Postal Code: <input type="text" name="zip" size="15" value="<? echo $the_zip; ?>"></p>
<p>Country: <input type="text" name="country" size="25" value="<? echo $the_country; ?>"></p>

<p style="text-align:center"><input type="submit" name="add_submit" value="Update Contact"><input type="reset" value="Reset Form"></p>

</form>

</body>

</html>

<?

// Start of functions

function readThisFile($xml_file)
{
if(!file_exists($xml_file))
{
die("The data file does not exist.");
}

chmod($xml_file, 0777);

if(!$handle = fopen($xml_file,"r"))
{
die("There was a problem opening the data file.");
}

while(!feof($handle))
{
$file_line = fgets($handle, 4096);

if (strpos($file_line, '<?xml') !== false)
{
continue;
}
elseif (strpos($file_line, '<!DOCTYPE') !== false)
{
continue;
}
elseif (strpos($file_line, '<reference>') !== false)
{
continue;
}
elseif (strpos($file_line, '</contact>') !== false)
{
continue;
}
elseif (strpos($file_line, '</reference>') !== false)
{
continue;
}

$content .= $file_line;
}

fclose($handle);

return $content;
}


function getElementInfo($element_name,$data_text)
{
if (empty($data_text))
{
return false;
}

$pattern = "/<" . $element_name . ">.*<\/" . $element_name . ">/";

preg_match($pattern, $data_text, $matches);

$pattern2 = "<" . $element_name . ">";
$matches[0] = str_replace($pattern2, "", $matches[0]);

$pattern3 = "</" . $element_name . ">";
$matches[0] = str_replace($pattern3, "", $matches[0]);

return trim($matches[0]);
}

?>

LOL, I wasn;t using my color coded editor...now the error is plain as day:

$the_website = getElementInfo("website",$val);'
$the_phone = getElementInfo("phone",$val);


grrrr :rolleyes:

:thumbsup: