php-doc-en/reference/simplexml/reference.xml

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<!-- $Revision: 1.7 $ -->
 <reference id="ref.simplexml">
  <title>SimpleXML functions</title>
  <titleabbrev>SimpleXML</titleabbrev>

  <partintro>
   <section id="simplexml.intro">
    &reftitle.intro;
    &warn.experimental;
    <para>
     The SimpleXML extension provides a very simple and easily usable
     toolset to convert XML to an object that can be processed with
     normal property selectors and array iterators.
    </para>
   </section>

   <section id="simplexml.installation">
    &reftitle.install;
    <para>
     This extension is only available if PHP was configured with
     <option role="configure">--enable-simplexml</option>. The
     PHP configuration script does this by default.
    </para>
   </section>
   
   <section id="simplexml.examples">
    &reftitle.examples;
    <para>
     Many examples in this reference require an XML string. Instead of
     repeating this string in every example, we put it into a file which
     we include in each example. This included file is shown in the 
     following example section. Alternatively, you could create an XML
     document and read it with <function>simplexml_load_file</function>.
    </para>
    <para>
     <example>
      <title>Include file example.php with XML string</title>
      <programlisting role="php" id="simplexml.examples.movie">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$xmlstr = <<<XML
<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?>
<movies>
 <movie>
  <title>PHP: Behind the Parser</title>
  <characters>
   <character>
    <name>Ms. Coder</name>
    <actor>Onlivia Actora</actor>
   </character>
   <character>
    <name>Mr. Coder</name>
    <actor>El Act&oacute;r</actor>
   </character>
  </characters>
  <plot>
   So, this language. It's like, a programming language. Or is it a
   scripting language? All is revealed in this thrilling horror spoof
   of a documentary.
  </plot>
  <rating type="thumbs">7</rating>
  <rating type="stars">5</rating>
 </movie>
</movies>
XML;
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
    <para>
     The simplicity of SimpleXML appears most clearly when one extracts
     a string or number from a basic XML document.
     <example>
      <title>Getting <literal>&lt;plot&gt;</literal></title>
      <programlisting role="php"><![CDATA[
<?php
include 'example.php';

$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);

echo $xml->movie[0]->plot; // "So this language. It's like..."
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
    <para>
     <example>
      <title>Accessing non-unique elements in SimpleXML</title>
      <simpara>
       When multiple instances of an element exist as children of
       a single parent element, normal iteration techniques apply.
      </simpara>
      <programlisting role="php"><![CDATA[
<?php
include 'example.php';

$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);

/* For each <movie> node, we echo a separate <plot>. */
foreach ($xml->movie as $movie) {
   echo $movie->plot, '<br />';
}

?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
    <para>
     <example>
      <title>Using attributes</title>
      <simpara>
       So far, we have only covered the work of reading element names
       and their values. SimpleXML can also access element attributes.
       Access attributes of an element just as you would access elements
       of an <type>array</type>.
      </simpara>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
include 'example.php';

$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);

/* Access the <rating> nodes of the first movie.
 * Output the rating scale, too. */
foreach ($xml->movie[0]->rating as $rating) {
    switch($rating['type']) { // Get attributes as element indices
    case 'thumbs':
        echo $rating, ' thumbs up';
        break;
    case 'stars':
        echo $rating, ' stars';
        break;
    }
}
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
    <para>
     <example>
      <title>Using Xpath</title>
      <simpara>
       SimpleXML includes builtin <acronym>Xpath</acronym> support.
       To find all <literal>&lt;character&gt;</literal> elements:
      </simpara>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
include 'example.php';
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);

foreach ($xml->xpath('//character') as $character) {
    echo $character->name, 'played by ', $character->actor, '<br />';
}
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
      <simpara>
       '<literal>//</literal>' serves as a wildcard. To specify absolute
       paths, omit one of the slashes.
      </simpara>
     </example>
    </para>
    <para>
     <example>
      <title>Setting values</title>
      <simpara>
       Data in SimpleXML doesn't have to be constant. The object allows
       for manipulation of all of its elements.
      </simpara>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
include 'example.php';
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);

$xml->movie[0]->actor[0]->age = '21';

echo $xml->asXML();
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
      <simpara>
       The above code will output a new XML document, just like the original,
       except that the new XML will define Ms. Coder's age as 21.
      </simpara>
     </example>
    </para>
    <para>
     <example>
      <title>DOM Interoperability</title>
      <simpara>
       PHP has a mechanism to convert XML nodes between SimpleXML
       and DOM formats. This example shows how one might change
       a DOM element to SimpleXML.
      </simpara>
      <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$dom = new domDocument;
$dom->loadXML('<books><book><title>blah</title></book></books>');
if (!$dom) {
     echo 'Error while parsing the document';
     exit;
}

$s = simplexml_import_dom($dom);

echo $s->book[0]->title;
?>
]]>
      </programlisting>
     </example>
    </para>
   </section>
  </partintro>

&reference.simplexml.functions;

 </reference>
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