how can I parse xml data in php

Question

Hello,

I am trying to find out how this would work

For testing purposes, I have made two websites.

One is calling a REST service from the other

I pull the xml data with file_get_contents

if I echo it, I can see a string off data.

But how can I use simpelxml on it, extract data from the nodes themselves?

If I use simplexml_load_file($url), I get some error saying xml declaration only allowed at the start off the document?

I have this in my testfile

<?php

$url='http://www.woonbel.nl/gps/setgpsloc';
//not working
$xml =simplexml_load_file($url);   

print_r($xml);

//just a string
$xml=file_get_contents($url);
echo "<h3>$xml</h3><br>";

?>

this was the xml I send.

I send this from a class file that I included in the top off my php file if I am sure the webservice is called, maybe that has someting to do with the declaration error?

header('Content-type: text/xml');
echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>\n";
echo "<response>\n";
echo "\t<status>$status_code</status>\n";
echo "\t<fout>Geen</fout>\n";
echo "</response>";

Thanks, Richard

Answer 1

Have you got empty lines before the declaration?

Answer 2

Sounds like there is a blank line at the top of the file, when it should start with the xml declaration. For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

Answer 3

Your REST service should be returning XML contents, something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<results>
  <result>
    <value awesome="true">LOLCATS</value>
  </result>
</results>

You'd then do something along these lines to consume that REST service on the other site:

$xml = simplexml_load_string(file_get_contents('http://example.com/rest.xml'));

foreach($xml->result as $result) {
  $value = $result->value;
  $awesome = $result->attributes()->awesome;
  // do something here with our values and attributes
}

The PHP docs for SimpleXML contain more complicated/real-world examples.

For your specific XML:

$xml = simplexml_load_string(file_get_contents('http://example.com/rest.xml'));

$status = $xml->status;
$fout = $xml->fout;