How do I append and modify an XML file on-line?

[Veeven]

Hi,

Suppose I have an XML file like this on the web, say,
http://www.example.com/list.xml

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<list>
<item id='itm01'>
<name>Item 1</name>
<desc>This is item 1</desc>
</item>
<item id='itm02'>
<name>Item 2</name>
<desc>This is item 2</desc>
</item>
<!-- many more... -->
</list>

I want to add a new item to the list or modify an existing item. Is
there any way (like I fill out a form and list.xml is updated) either
using ASP, PHP or Perl?

Please help. Thanking you.

[Martin Honnen]

Veeven wrote:

Suppose I have an XML file like this on the web, say,
http://www.example.com/list.xml

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<list>
<item id='itm01'>
<name>Item 1</name>
<desc>This is item 1</desc>
</item>
<item id='itm02'>
<name>Item 2</name>
<desc>This is item 2</desc>
</item>
<!-- many more... -->
</list>

I want to add a new item to the list or modify an existing item. Is
there any way (like I fill out a form and list.xml is updated) either
using ASP, PHP or Perl?

Well, current browser support HTML 4 which has form controls like <input
type="text"> which will allow you to build a form where someone can
enter the name and desc of a new item and submit the data to a server
where a PHP or ASP or Perl script could then add the item to your XML file.
Browsers like IE5+/Win and Netscape 6+ respectively Mozilla also have
script support to build XML documents in memory using the W3C DOM and
post such an XML document serialized to a server, ASP can easily read
such a posted XML, PHP is in my experience not that good at reading a
posted file (although I think since 4.3.0 it is better supported), with
Perl CGI scripting I am not too familiar to judge its facilities here.

HTML forms have no support for binding/posting XML directly, there are
two suggestions for new forms that support that, one is XForms from the
W3C, see
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/
which has some implementations, and the other is Web Forms, see
http://www.hixie.ch/specs/html/forms/web-forms
which is as far as I know not implemented anywhere (being just a draft)
but written by an Opera employee so it seems it has chances to be
implemented some day.
--

Martin Honnen
http://JavaScript.FAQTs.com/

You can do it by using XMLHTTP post from JSCript on cleitn side and tiny
engine written, say, on ASP for server side which will just accept incoming
data post and store it back into your xml data file. There is the way to use
XMLDSO, but can't say is it works for saving data back on server, probably
should, but never tryed it actually.

Cheers,
<spider/>

"Veeven" <ch*********@yahoo.co.in> wrote in message
news:b3**************************@posting.google.c om...
: Hi,
:
: Suppose I have an XML file like this on the web, say,
: http://www.example.com/list.xml
:
: <?xml version='1.0'?>
: <list>
: <item id='itm01'>
: <name>Item 1</name>
: <desc>This is item 1</desc>
: </item>
: <item id='itm02'>
: <name>Item 2</name>
: <desc>This is item 2</desc>
: </item>
: <!-- many more... -->
: </list>
:
: I want to add a new item to the list or modify an existing item. Is
: there any way (like I fill out a form and list.xml is updated) either
: using ASP, PHP or Perl?
:
: Please help. Thanking you.