Phpdiscuss - Php Newsgroups And Mailing Lists wrote: > Hi, > > Does anybody have any depthful knowledge of the SimpleXML extension in > PHP5?.. > > More accurately, do you know if the simpleXml->xpath() method uses DOM, > SAX or some other method of parsing a loaded XML document? > > I ask because I am trying to parse arbitrary XML documents as efficiently > as possible (avoiding DOM). > > Kieran
Hi, I've recently done a fair bit of work trying to make sense (for me) of the various PHP 5 XML-related alternatives. The bottom line (for me) is that at the end of the day the DOM functions provide the most access and flexibility, although at the cost of slightly more design complexity. If I have to generate a new XML file, DOM (for me) is the way to go. The XML Parser found its home (for me) processing include files. The output of this process is a single XML file that I can feed into downstream processes. The SimpleXML routines found its home (for me) working with static XML files. I haven't figured out how to add elements to a SimpleXML object, so it tends to be limited to "read-only" applications. The SimpleXMLIterator found a home (for me) in creating ID's and node genelogical ID's. Oddly, the SimpleXMLIterator skips the root level xml element and I had to use DOM to "add it back". I ended up creating "wrappers" and "proxy" classes for each of the above. This allowed me to gain some uniformity in my API's so tend to forget about what's happening underneath. I also ended up creating a DomXPathQueryManager class to hide some of the complexity in setting up and executing XPath queries. So, at the end of the day, I might use any or all in some combination, but know that the DOM functions are my backup that can do it all. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
