PHP output data from mysql database to an XML file

Question

I am getting data from mysql database to an XML file. I am using the following PHP code to get the output.

PHP CODE:

<?php

mysql_connect('localhost', 'root', '');
mysql_select_db('emptestdb');

$sql = "SELECT  name, username, DATE(visitdate) AS vdate, DATE(retdate) AS rdate, location FROM users";
$res = mysql_query($sql);

header("Content-Type: text/html/force-download");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='EMP_RECORDS.xml'");

$xml = new XMLWriter();

$xml->openURI("php://output");
$xml->startDocument('1.0','UTF-8');
$xml->setIndent(true);

$xml->startElement('engineers');

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res)) {
  $xml->startElement("engineer");

  $xml->writeAttribute('engID', $row['username']);
  $xml->writeAttribute('engName', $row['name']);

  $xml->startElement("location");
  $xml->writeAttribute('fieldLoc', $row['location']);

  $xml->writeElement('vistiDate',$row['vdate']);
  $xml->writeElement('retDate',$row['rdate']);

  $xml->endElement();
  $xml->endElement();
}

$xml->endElement();

header('Content-type: text/xml');

$xml->flush();
?>

On using the above code i am getting the following output XML output.

Present Output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

    <engineers>
     <engineer engID="1" engName="John">
      <location fieldLoc="Geneva">
       <vistiDate>2015-01-23</vistiDate>
       <retDate>2015-06-28</retDate>
      </location>
     </engineer>
     <engineer engID="1" engName="John">
      <location fieldLoc="Paris">
       <vistiDate>2015-02-12</vistiDate>
       <retDate>2015-02-17</retDate>
      </location>
     </engineer>
     <engineer engID="2" engName="Josh">
      <location fieldLoc="Paris">
       <vistiDate>2015-02-12</vistiDate>
       <retDate>2015-02-17</retDate>
      </location>
     </engineer>
    <engineer engID="3" engName="Rita">
      <location fieldLoc="Paris">
       <vistiDate>2015-02-12</vistiDate>
       <retDate>2015-02-17</retDate>
      </location>
     </engineer>
    </engineers>

I am trying to group the engID and get the following output

Desired Output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<engineers>
 <engineer engID="1" engName="John">
  <location fieldLoc="Geneva">
   <vistiDate>2015-01-23</vistiDate>
   <retDate>2015-06-28</retDate>
  </location>

  <location fieldLoc="Paris">
   <vistiDate>2015-02-12</vistiDate>
   <retDate>2015-02-17</retDate>
  </location>
</engineer>

 <engineer engID="2" engName="Josh">
  <location fieldLoc="Paris">
   <vistiDate>2015-02-12</vistiDate>
   <retDate>2015-02-17</retDate>
  </location>
 </engineer>

 <engineer engID="3" engName="Rita">
  <location fieldLoc="Paris">
   <vistiDate>2015-02-12</vistiDate>
   <retDate>2015-02-17</retDate>
  </location>
 </engineer>
</engineers>

Can someone guide me as to how to group it together. Thanks.

Answer 1

A non-so bad idea should be to

1. process your data and save it

2. generate your xml

    $engineers = []; // process data while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res)) { if (!isset($engineers[$row['username']])) { $engineers[$row['username']] = [ 'name' => $row['name'], 'locations' => [], ]; } $engineers[$row['username']]['locations'][] = [ $xml->writeAttribute('fieldLoc', $row['location']); 'vistiDate' => $row['vdate'], 'retDate' => $row['rdate']); ]; } // generate xml foreach ($engineers as $engineer) { // add engineer info to xml foreach ($engineer['locations'] as $location) { // add location to xml } }