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XML Tutorial

XML HOME XML Introduction XML How to use XML Tree XML Syntax XML Elements XML Attributes XML Namespaces XML Display XML HttpRequest XML Parser XML DOM XML XPath XML XSLT XML XQuery XML XLink XML Validator XML DTD XML Schema XML Server XML Examples XML Quiz XML Certificate

XML AJAX

AJAX Introduction AJAX XMLHttp AJAX Request AJAX Response AJAX XML File AJAX PHP AJAX ASP AJAX Database AJAX Applications AJAX Examples

XML DOM

DOM Introduction DOM Nodes DOM Accessing DOM Node Info DOM Node List DOM Traversing DOM Navigating DOM Get Values DOM Change Nodes DOM Remove Nodes DOM Replace Nodes DOM Create Nodes DOM Add Nodes DOM Clone Nodes DOM Examples

XPath Tutorial

XPath Introduction XPath Nodes XPath Syntax XPath Axes XPath Operators XPath Examples

XSLT Tutorial

XSLT Introduction XSL Languages XSLT Transform XSLT <template> XSLT <value-of> XSLT <for-each> XSLT <sort> XSLT <if> XSLT <choose> XSLT Apply XSLT on the Client XSLT on the Server XSLT Edit XML XSLT Examples

XQuery Tutorial

XQuery Introduction XQuery Example XQuery FLWOR XQuery HTML XQuery Terms XQuery Syntax XQuery Add XQuery Select XQuery Functions

XML DTD

DTD Introduction DTD Building Blocks DTD Elements DTD Attributes DTD Elements vs Attr DTD Entities DTD Examples

XSD Schema

XSD Introduction XSD How To XSD <schema> XSD Elements XSD Attributes XSD Restrictions XSD Complex Elements XSD Empty XSD Elements-only XSD Text-only XSD Mixed XSD Indicators XSD <any> XSD <anyAttribute> XSD Substitution XSD Example

XSD Data Types

XSD String XSD Date/Time XSD Numeric XSD Misc XSD Reference

Web Services

XML Services XML WSDL XML SOAP XML RDF XML RSS

References

DOM Node Types DOM Node DOM NodeList DOM NamedNodeMap DOM Document DOM Element DOM Attribute DOM Text DOM CDATA DOM Comment DOM XMLHttpRequest DOM Parser XSLT Elements XSLT/XPath Functions

XML on the Server


XML files are plain text files just like HTML files.

XML can easily be stored and generated by a standard web server.


Storing XML Files on the Server

XML files can be stored on an Internet server exactly the same way as HTML files.

Start Windows Notepad and write the following lines:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<note>
  <from>Jani</from>
  <to>Tove</to>
  <message>Remember me this weekend</message>
</note>

Save the file on your web server with a proper name like "note.xml".


Generating XML with PHP

XML can be generated on a server without any installed XML software.

To generate an XML response from the server using PHP, use following code:

<?php
header("Content-type: text/xml");
echo "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>";
echo "<note>";
echo "<from>Jani</from>";
echo "<to>Tove</to>";
echo "<message>Remember me this weekend</message>";
echo "</note>";
?>

Note that the content type of the response header must be set to "text/xml".

See how the PHP file will be returned from the server.

If you want to study PHP, you will find our PHP tutorial on our homepage.



Generating XML with ASP

To generate an XML response from the server - simply write the following code and save it as an ASP file on the web server:

<%
response.ContentType="text/xml"
response.Write("<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>")
response.Write("<note>")
response.Write("<from>Jani</from>")
response.Write("<to>Tove</to>")
response.Write("<message>Remember me this weekend</message>")
response.Write("</note>")
%>

Note that the content type of the response must be set to "text/xml".

See how the ASP file will be returned from the server.

If you want to study ASP, you will find our ASP tutorial on our homepage.


Generating XML From a Database

XML can be generated from a database without any installed XML software.

To generate an XML database response from the server, simply write the following code and save it as an ASP file on the web server:

<%
response.ContentType = "text/xml"
set conn=Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
conn.provider="Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;"
conn.open server.mappath("/datafolder/database.mdb")

sql="select fname,lname from tblGuestBook"
set rs=Conn.Execute(sql)

response.write("<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>")
response.write("<guestbook>")
while (not rs.EOF)
response.write("<guest>")
response.write("<fname>" & rs("fname") & "</fname>")
response.write("<lname>" & rs("lname") & "</lname>")
response.write("</guest>")
rs.MoveNext()
wend

rs.close()
conn.close()
response.write("</guestbook>")
%>

See the real life database output from the ASP file above.

The example above uses ASP with ADO.

If you want to study ASP and ADO, you will find the tutorials on our homepage.


Transforming XML with XSLT on the Server

This ASP transforms an XML file to XHTML on the server:

<%
'Load XML
set xml = Server.CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xml.async = false
xml.load(Server.MapPath("simple.xml"))

'Load XSL
set xsl = Server.CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
xsl.async = false
xsl.load(Server.MapPath("simple.xsl"))

'Transform file
Response.Write(xml.transformNode(xsl))
%>

Example explained

  • The first block of code creates an instance of the Microsoft XML parser (XMLDOM), and loads the XML file into memory.
  • The second block of code creates another instance of the parser and loads the XSL file into memory.
  • The last line of code transforms the XML document using the XSL document, and sends the result as XHTML to your browser. Nice!

See how it works.