php - this PHP code functions in XAMPP but AZURE shows code in browser

Question

<?php
require_once('functions.php');

//display links from xml
$links = simple_load_file('links.xml');
foreach($links as $link){
    $name = $link['name'];
    $ref = $link->loc;
    echo "<a href='".$ref."' class='navigation'>".$name."</a>";
}
//Display login boxes if user hasnt logged in
if((!isset($_SESSION['validUser'])) ||  ($_SESSION['validUser'] != true))
{
?>
//code for showing boxes.....

In the browser, it displays the folowing ;

loc; echo "    ".$name."   ";} //Display loginboxes.........all the way to != true)) { ?>

When I test this on XAMPP locally it works as intended, but using Azure it produces this. It appears as if it's reading the '->' as a closing tag for my php. Anyne encounter something like this?

Answer 1

I never did get to find the exact problem, as the project was abandoned. however, as suggested it is most likely a configuration issue from within Windows Azure.