How To Upload And Save XML Data in Laravel 8

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Inside this article we will see How to upload and save XML file in laravel 8. There are actually very few simple steps and also you can follow this step in any PHP and it’s framework. This is not laravel specific.

To know the topic, reading xml, upload and save file in laravel we will consider a sample xml and read it in code.

Above image is view of sample xml file and it’s data. You can download this

Sample XML File Click to Download

Let’s get started.

Installation of Laravel Application

Laravel Installation can be done in two ways.

Laravel Installer
By using composer

Laravel Installer

To install Laravel via Laravel installer, we need to install it’s installer first. We need to make use of composer for that.

$ composer global require laravel/installer

This command will install laravel installer at system. This installation is at global scope, so you type command from any directory at terminal. To verify type the given command –

$ laravel

This command will open a command palette of Laravel Installer.

To create ad install laravel project in system,

$ laravel new blog

With the name of blog a laravel project will be created at your specified path.

By using composer

Alternatively, we can also install Laravel by Composer command create-project. If your system doesn’t has Composer Installed, Learn Composer Installation Steps. Here is the complete command to create a laravel project-

$ composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel blog

After following these steps we can install a Laravel application into system.

To start the development server of Laravel –

$ php artisan serve

This command outputs –

Starting Laravel development server: http://127.0.0.1:8000

Assuming laravel already installed at system.

Application Database Configuration

Inside this we will make database configuration using .env file. So to connect with database we need to pass database name, username, password etc.

Let’s open .env file and provide the following details.

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=xml_app
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=root

By the above step we are now successfully connected with database.

Create Route

Open web.php file from /routes

//.. other code

# Import controller
use App\Http\Controllers\ReadXmlController;

Route::match(["get", "post"], "read-xml", [ReadXmlController::class, "index"])->name('xml-upload');

Create Model & Migration

Open project into terminal. Let’s create model and migration by using a single command.

Creating model and migration …

$ php artisan make:model XmlData -m

Above command will create 2 files –

Model file with name XmlData.php at /app/Models
Migration File with name 2021_01_21_040518_create_xml_data_table.php at /database/migrations

Open up the Model file and write this code snippet

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class XmlData extends Model
{
    use HasFactory;

    public $timestamps = false;
}

Open migration file and write the following piece of code

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

class CreateXmlDataTable extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('xml_data', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->string("name", 120);
            $table->string("category", 20);
            $table->string("price", 10);
            $table->integer("total_videos");
        });
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('xml_data');
    }
}

Now, let’s migrate the created migration file in database. Back to terminal and run this command.

$ php artisan migrate

This command will create table in database.

Create Controller

We need to create a controller where we will parse or read xml data string from file. Open laravel project into shell or terminal and type this command.

To create Controller –

$ php artisan make:controller ReadXmlController

It will create a file inside /app/Http/Controllers.

Open up the created file ReadXmlController.php into editor

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Models\XmlData;

class ReadXmlController extends Controller
{
    public function index(Request $req)
    {
        if($req->isMethod("POST")){

            $xmlDataString = file_get_contents(public_path('sample-course.xml'));
            $xmlObject = simplexml_load_string($xmlDataString);
                    
            $json = json_encode($xmlObject);
            $phpDataArray = json_decode($json, true); 
    
            // echo "<pre>";
            // print_r($phpDataArray);

            if(count($phpDataArray['course']) > 0){

                $dataArray = array();
                
                foreach($phpDataArray['course'] as $index => $data){

                    $dataArray[] = [
                        "name" => $data['name'],
                        "category" => $data['category'],
                        "price" => $data['price'],
                        "total_videos" => $data['videos']
                    ];
                }

                XmlData::insert($dataArray);

                return back()->with('success','Data saved successfully!');
            }
        }

        return view("xml-data");
    }
}

public_path(‘sample-course.xml’) XML file should be placed in public directory. public_path returns the path upto /public folder

simplexml_load_string($xmlDataString); It’s a PHP function used to read xml file
XmlData::insert($dataArray); Insert data array into table

Create Blade Template File

Next, we need to create a blade template file with the name xml-data.blade.php at /resources/views

Open up the file xml-data.blade.php

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>How To Upload And Save XML Data in Laravel 8 - Online Web Tutor</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.5.2/css/bootstrap.min.css">
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.16.0/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
    <script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.5.2/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
    <style>
        #frm-create-post label.error{
            color:red;
        }
    </style>
</head>

<body>

    <div class="container" style="margin-top: 50px;">
        <h4 style="text-align: center;">How To Upload And Save XML Data in Laravel 8 - Online Web Tutor</h4>

        @if ($message = Session::get('success'))
        <div class="alert alert-success alert-block">
            <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert">×</button>    
            <strong>{{ $message }}</strong>
        </div>
        @endif

        <form action="{{ route('xml-upload') }}" id="frm-create-course" method="post">
           @csrf
            <div class="form-group">
                <label for="file">Select XML File:</label>
                <input type="file" class="form-control" required id="file" name="file">
            </div>

            <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary" id="submit-post">Submit</button>
        </form>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Application Testing

Open project to terminal and type the command to start development server

$ php artisan serve

Open up the URL – http://localhost:8000/read-xml

XML File Dump View

Upload Data Layout View

Data Saved in MySQL DB

We hope this article helped you to learn about i.e How To Upload And Save XML Data in Laravel 8 Tutorial in a very detailed way.

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