How to parse an XML node with a colon tag using PHP

Question

I am trying to fetch the value of the following nodes from [this URL (takes quite some time to load)][1]. The elements I'm interested in are:

title, g:price and g:gtin

The XML starts like this:

<rss xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0" version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>PhotoSpecialist.de</title>
    <link>http://www.photospecialist.de</link>
    <description/>
    <item>
      <g:id>BEN107C</g:id>
      <title>Benbo Trekker Mk3 + Kugelkopf + Tasche</title>
      <description>
        Benbo Trekker Mk3 + Kugelkopf + Tasche Das Benbo Trekker Mk3 ist eine leichte Variante des beliebten Benbo 1. Sein geringes Gewicht macht das Trekker Mk3 zum idealen Stativ, wenn Sie viel draußen fotografieren und viel unterwegs sind. Sollten Sie in eine Situation kommen, in der maximale Stabilität zählt, verfügt das Benbo Trekker Mk3 über einen Haken an der Mittelsäule. An diesem können Sie das Stativ mit zusätzlichem Gewicht bei Bedarf beschweren. Dank der zwei besonderen Kamera-Befestigungsschrauben können Sie mit dem Benbo Trekker Mk3 sehr nah am Boden fotografieren. So nah, dass in vielen Fällen die einzige Einschränkung die Größe Ihrer Kamera darstellt. In diesem Set erhalten Sie das Benbo Trekker Mk3 zusammen mit einem Kugelkopf, Socket und einer Tasche für den sicheren und komfortablen Transport.
      </description>
      <link>
        http://www.photospecialist.de/benbo-trekker-mk3-kugelkopf-tasche?dfw_tracker=2469-16
      </link>
      <g:image_link>http://static.fotokonijnenberg.nl/media/catalog/product/b/e/benbo_trekker_mk3_tripod_kit_with_b__s_head__bag_ben107c1.jpg</g:image_link>
      <g:price>199.00 EUR</g:price>
      <g:condition>new</g:condition>
      <g:availability>in stock</g:availability>
      <g:identifier_exists>TRUE</g:identifier_exists>
      <g:brand>Benbo</g:brand>
      <g:gtin>5022361100576</g:gtin>
      <g:item_group_id>0</g:item_group_id>
      <g:product_type>Tripod</g:product_type>
      <g:mpn/>
      <g:google_product_category>Kameras & Optik</g:google_product_category>
    </item>
  ...
  </channel>
</rss>

To get this, I have written the following code:

$z = new XMLReader;
$z->open('https://my.datafeedwatch.com/static/files/1248/8222ebd3847fbfdc119abc9ba9d562b2cdb95818.xml');

$doc = new DOMDocument;

while ($z->read() && $z->name !== 'item')
    ;

while ($z->name === 'item')
{
    $node = new SimpleXMLElement($z->readOuterXML());
    $a = $node->title;
    $b = $node->price;
    $c = $node->gtin;
    echo $a . $b . $c . "<br />";
    $z->next('item');
}

This returns me only the title...price and gtin are not showing.

Answer 1

The elements you're asking about are not part of the default namespace but in a different one. You can see that because they have a prefix in their name separated by the colon:

  ...
  <channel>
    <title>PhotoSpecialist.de</title>
    <!-- title is in the default namespace, no colon in the name -->
    ...
    <g:price>199.00 EUR</g:price>
    ...
    <g:gtin>5022361100576</g:gtin>
    <!-- price and gtin are in a different namespace, colon in the name and prefixed by "g" -->
  ...

The namespace is given with a prefix, here "g" in your case. And the prefix the namespace stands for is defined in the document element here:

<rss xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0" version="2.0">

So the namespace is "http://base.google.com/ns/1.0".

When you access the child-elements by their name with the SimpleXMLElement as you currently do:

$a = $node->title;
$b = $node->price;
$c = $node->gtin;

you're looking only in the default namespace. So only the first element actually contains text, the other two are created on-thy-fly and are yet empty.

To access the namespaced child-elements you need to tell the SimpleXMLElement explicitly with the children() method. It creates a new SimpleXMLElement with all the children in that namespace instead of the default one:

$google = $node->children("http://base.google.com/ns/1.0");

$a = $node->title;
$b = $google->price;
$c = $google->gtin;

So much for the isolated example (yes, that's it already).

A full example then could look like (including node-expansion on the reader, the code you had was a bit rusty):

<?php
/**
 * How to parse an XML node with a colon tag using PHP
 *
 * @link http://stackoverflow.com/q/29876898/367456
 */
const HTTP_BASE_GOOGLE_COM_NS_1_0 = "http://base.google.com/ns/1.0";

$url = 'https://my.datafeedwatch.com/static/files/1248/8222ebd3847fbfdc119abc9ba9d562b2cdb95818.xml';

$reader = new XMLReader;
$reader->open($url);

$doc = new DOMDocument;

// move to first item element
while (($valid = $reader->read()) && $reader->name !== 'item') ;

while ($valid) {
    $default    = simplexml_import_dom($reader->expand($doc));
    $googleBase = $default->children(HTTP_BASE_GOOGLE_COM_NS_1_0);
    printf(
        "%s - %s - %s<br />\n"
        , htmlspecialchars($default->title)
        , htmlspecialchars($googleBase->price)
        , htmlspecialchars($googleBase->gtin)
    );

    // move to next item element
    $valid = $reader->next('item');
};

I hope this both gives an explanation and broadens the view a little on XMLReader use as well.