Help with simple XML

[Shawn Northrop]

So i created an XML file with php. here is the result:

<mbInfo>
<post date="2007-10-13">
<name>1</name>
<email>11</email>
<location>111</location>
<message/>
</post>

<post date="">
<name/>
<email>22</email>
<location>222</location>
<message>test</message>
</post>
</mbInfo>

In the first <post> the database entry for message was null
in the second the entry for date and name were null

Im not sure about the date="">, however, i think <name/> and <message/> might cause some problems? should it be <name></name>, or is it fine as is?

[phvfl]

The date value is an attribute node so the empty quotes are the correct way for this to be rendered, if it was omitted then the date node would not exist for that post element and so could cause parsing errors.

The syntax for the empty name and message nodes is using a self closing node.

<name/>
<name></name>
 

The two lines above are equivalent, the use of the self closing tag is better as it is more readable. The second line could have unrecognised/whitespace characters in it which are not rendered, the first line is definitely an empty node.

There will not be any issue with either the empty attribute node or the self closing node.

[Shawn Northrop]

thanks that helps!
-Shawn