how do i parse an xml page to output its data pieces to the way i want?

Question

here is the page i want to parse (the api link i gave is just a dev test so its ok to be public) http://api.scribd.com/api?method=docs.getList&api_key=2apz5npsqin3cjlbj0s6m

the output im looking for is something like this (for now)

 Doc_id: 29638658
 access_key: key-11fg37gwmer54ssq56l3
 secret_password: 1trinfqri6cnv3gf6rnl
 title: Sample
 description: k
 thumbnail_url: http://i6.scribdassets.com/public/images/uploaded/152418747/xTkjCwQaGf_thumbnail.jpeg
 page_count: 100

ive tried everything i can find on the internet but nothing works good. i have this one script

<?php
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load("http://api.scribd.com/api?method=docs.getList&amp;api_key=2apz5npsqin3cjlbj0s6m");

$x = $xmlDoc->documentElement;
foreach ($x->childNodes AS $item) {
  print $item->nodeName . " = " . $item->nodeValue;
 }



 ?>

its output comes out like this:

#text = 
  resultset = 

      29638658
      key-11fg37gwmer54ssq56l3
      1trinfqri6cnv3gf6rnl

        Sample


        k

      http://i6.scribdassets.com/public/images/uploaded/152418747/xTkjCwQaGf_thumbnail.jpeg

        DONE

      100


      29713260
      key-18a9xret4jf02129vlw8
      25fjsmmvl62l4cbwd1vq

        book2


        description bla bla 

      http://i6.scribdassets.com/public/images/uploaded/153065528/oLVqPZMu3zhsOn_thumbnail.jpeg

        DONE

      7

  #text = 

i need major help im really stuck and dont know what to do. please please help me. thnx

Answer 1

I recommend you load the XML data into a new SimpleXmlElement object as this will allow you to run xpath queries against the document.

You will need to do a little research on how it works, but here's a few pointers...

Execute the xpath like so:

// $xml is a SimpleXMLElement object
$xml = simplexml_load_file('/path/to/file');
$nodes = $xml->xpath('/xpathquery');

A single / represents the root node (in your case rsp). A double slash represents any matching node. For example //title would return all titles. Each result of an xpath query is an array of SimpleXMLElements. You can get data from it like so:

# Untested        
$xml = simplexml_load_file('/path/to/file');
$nodes = $xml->xpath('//result');

foreach ($result as $node) {
    // Print out the value in title
    echo $node->title;
}

// Print out the amount of results
echo $xml->rsp->attributes()->totalResultsAvailable;

The final example with the results numbers may not work, but it is along those lines.

Answer 2

With "$x->childNodes" you get only direct childs. You might want to check php documentation: http://php.net/manual/en/class.domdocument.php

And I think that this one could be better:
http://si.php.net/manual/en/book.simplexml.php

Answer 3

Quick and dirty, the way things are supposed to be:

<?php 
 $x = simplexml_load_file('http://api.scribd.com/api?method=docs.getList&amp;api_key=2apz5npsqin3cjlbj0s6m');
 foreach($x->resultset->result as $v) {
     foreach((array)$v as $kk=>$vv) {
         echo $kk.": ".trim($vv)."<br>\n";
     }
     echo "<br><br>\n";
 }

This will output in the format you requested:

doc_id: 29638658
access_key: key-11fg37gwmer54ssq56l3
secret_password: 1trinfqri6cnv3gf6rnl
title: Sample
description: k
thumbnail_url: http://i6.scribdassets.com/public/images/uploaded/152418747/xTkjCwQaGf_thumbnail.jpeg
conversion_status: DONE
page_count: 100

doc_id: 29713260
access_key: key-18a9xret4jf02129vlw8
secret_password: 25fjsmmvl62l4cbwd1vq
title: book2
description: description bla bla
thumbnail_url: http://i6.scribdassets.com/public/images/uploaded/153065528/oLVqPZMu3zhsOn_thumbnail.jpeg
conversion_status: DONE
page_count: 7