&reftitle.examples;
Basic SimpleXML usage 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 simplexml_load_file. Include file example.php with XML string PHP: Behind the Parser Ms. Coder Onlivia Actora Mr. Coder El ActÓr 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. PHP solves all my web problems 7 5 XML; ?> ]]> The simplicity of SimpleXML appears most clearly when one extracts a string or number from a basic XML document. Getting <literal><plot></literal> movie[0]->plot; ?> ]]> &example.outputs; Accessing elements within an XML document that contain characters not permitted under PHP's naming convention (e.g. the hyphen) can be accomplished by encapsulating the element name within braces and the apostrophe. Getting <literal><line></literal> movie->{'great-lines'}->line; ?> ]]> &example.outputs; Accessing non-unique elements in SimpleXML When multiple instances of an element exist as children of a single parent element, normal iteration techniques apply. node, we echo a separate . */ foreach ($movies->movie->characters->character as $character) { echo $character->name, ' played by ', $character->actor, PHP_EOL; } ?> ]]> &example.outputs; Properties ($movies->movie in previous example) are not arrays. They are iterable and accessible objects. Using attributes 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 elements of an array. nodes of the first movie. * Output the rating scale, too. */ foreach ($movies->movie[0]->rating as $rating) { switch((string) $rating['type']) { // Get attributes as element indices case 'thumbs': echo $rating, ' thumbs up'; break; case 'stars': echo $rating, ' stars'; break; } } ?> ]]> &example.outputs; Comparing Elements and Attributes with Text To compare an element or attribute with a string or pass it into a function that requires a string, you must cast it to a string using (string). Otherwise, PHP treats the element as an object. movie->title == 'PHP: Behind the Parser') { print 'My favorite movie.'; } echo htmlentities((string) $movies->movie->title); ?> ]]> &example.outputs; Comparing Two Elements Two SimpleXMLElements are considered different even if they point to the same element. ]]> &example.outputs; Using XPath SimpleXML includes built-in XPath support. To find all <character> elements: xpath('//character') as $character) { echo $character->name, ' played by ', $character->actor, PHP_EOL; } ?> ]]> '//' serves as a wildcard. To specify absolute paths, omit one of the slashes. &example.outputs; Setting values Data in SimpleXML doesn't have to be constant. The object allows for manipulation of all of its elements. movie[0]->characters->character[0]->name = 'Miss Coder'; echo $movies->asXML(); ?> ]]> &example.outputs; PHP: Behind the Parser Miss Coder Onlivia Actora Mr. Coder El ActÓr 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. PHP solves all my web problems 7 5 ]]> Adding elements and attributes SimpleXML has had the ability to easily add children and attributes. movie[0]->characters->addChild('character'); $character->addChild('name', 'Mr. Parser'); $character->addChild('actor', 'John Doe'); $rating = $movies->movie[0]->addChild('rating', 'PG'); $rating->addAttribute('type', 'mpaa'); echo $movies->asXML(); ?> ]]> &example.outputs; PHP: Behind the Parser Ms. Coder Onlivia Actora Mr. Coder El ActÓr Mr. ParserJohn Doe So, this language. It's like, a programming language. Or is it a scripting language? All is revealed in this thrilling horror spoof of a documentary. PHP solves all my web problems 7 5 PG ]]> DOM Interoperability PHP has a mechanism to convert XML nodes between SimpleXML and DOM formats. This example shows how one might change a DOM element to SimpleXML. loadXML('blah'); if (!$dom) { echo 'Error while parsing the document'; exit; } $books = simplexml_import_dom($dom); echo $books->book[0]->title; ?> ]]> &example.outputs;
Dealing with XML errors Dealing with XML errors when loading documents is a very simple task. Using the libxml functionality it is possible to suppress all XML errors when loading the document and then iterate over the errors. The libXMLError object, returned by libxml_get_errors, contains several properties including the message, line and column (position) of the error. Loading broken XML string "); if ($sxe === false) { echo "Failed loading XML\n"; foreach(libxml_get_errors() as $error) { echo "\t", $error->message; } } ?> ]]> &example.outputs; ' expected Opening and ending tag mismatch: xml line 1 and broken Premature end of data in tag broken line 1 ]]>
&reftitle.seealso; libxml_use_internal_errors libxml_get_errors