php parse xml string [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Best XML Parser for PHP

I have a string with XML data in it. How do I parse it in PHP?

thank you

Answer 1

Try with simple XML, here's an example:

do.php:

<?php
$xml_str = file_get_contents('xmlfile.xml');
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xml_str);
$items = $xml->xpath('*/item');

foreach($items as $item) {
    echo $item['title'], ': ', $item['description'], "\n";
}

xmlfile.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xml>
    <items>
        <item title="Hello World" description="Hellowing the world.." />
        <item title="Hello People" description="greeting people.." />
    </items>
</xml>

Answer 2

For those situations where SimpleXML is not available, I use this function originally posted in a comment on php.net. It works great 99% of the time.

<?php
/**
 * Convert XML to an Array
 *
 * @param string  $XML
 * @return array
 */
function XMLtoArray($XML)
{
    $xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parse_into_struct($xml_parser, $XML, $vals);
    xml_parser_free($xml_parser);
    // wyznaczamy tablice z powtarzajacymi sie tagami na tym samym poziomie
    $_tmp='';
    foreach ($vals as $xml_elem) {
        $x_tag=$xml_elem['tag'];
        $x_level=$xml_elem['level'];
        $x_type=$xml_elem['type'];
        if ($x_level!=1 && $x_type == 'close') {
            if (isset($multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]))
                $multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]=1;
            else
                $multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]=0;
        }
        if ($x_level!=1 && $x_type == 'complete') {
            if ($_tmp==$x_tag)
                $multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]=1;
            $_tmp=$x_tag;
        }
    }
    // jedziemy po tablicy
    foreach ($vals as $xml_elem) {
        $x_tag=$xml_elem['tag'];
        $x_level=$xml_elem['level'];
        $x_type=$xml_elem['type'];
        if ($x_type == 'open')
            $level[$x_level] = $x_tag;
        $start_level = 1;
        $php_stmt = '$xml_array';
        if ($x_type=='close' && $x_level!=1)
            $multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]++;
        while ($start_level < $x_level) {
            $php_stmt .= '[$level['.$start_level.']]';
            if (isset($multi_key[$level[$start_level]][$start_level]) && $multi_key[$level[$start_level]][$start_level])
                $php_stmt .= '['.($multi_key[$level[$start_level]][$start_level]-1).']';
            $start_level++;
        }
        $add='';
        if (isset($multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level]) && $multi_key[$x_tag][$x_level] && ($x_type=='open' || $x_type=='complete')) {
            if (!isset($multi_key2[$x_tag][$x_level]))
                $multi_key2[$x_tag][$x_level]=0;
            else
                $multi_key2[$x_tag][$x_level]++;
            $add='['.$multi_key2[$x_tag][$x_level].']';
        }
        if (isset($xml_elem['value']) && trim($xml_elem['value'])!='' && !array_key_exists('attributes', $xml_elem)) {
            if ($x_type == 'open')
                $php_stmt_main=$php_stmt.'[$x_type]'.$add.'[\'content\'] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
            else
                $php_stmt_main=$php_stmt.'[$x_tag]'.$add.' = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
            eval($php_stmt_main);
        }
        if (array_key_exists('attributes', $xml_elem)) {
            if (isset($xml_elem['value'])) {
                $php_stmt_main=$php_stmt.'[$x_tag]'.$add.'[\'content\'] = $xml_elem[\'value\'];';
                eval($php_stmt_main);
            }
            foreach ($xml_elem['attributes'] as $key=>$value) {
                $php_stmt_att=$php_stmt.'[$x_tag]'.$add.'[$key] = $value;';
                eval($php_stmt_att);
            }
        }
    }
    return $xml_array;
}
?>

Answer 3

If you're familiar with the Zend Framework, pass your XML to Zend_Config_Xml

given xml like this

$myXml = '
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<top>
  <var>value</var>
  <nested>
    <var>value</var>
  </nested>
  <arrayVar>
    <item>1</item>
    <item>2</item>
    <item>3</item>        
  </arrayVar>
</top>';

You can access it thusly:

$xml = new Zend_Config_Xml( $myXml );

$var = $xml->var;
$nestedVar = $xml->nested->var;
$arrayVar = $xml->arrayVar->toArray();

Zend Config XML uses simplexml and builds on this to give a nice interface, that makes it really easy to get to the xml node you're looking for.

There's loads more in the ZF Manual, including how to access attributes, and some other really useful features.

http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/zend.config.adapters.xml.html

Zend Config is one of the easiest to use parts of ZF, and (I think) it's a standalone component, you can use just Zend Config and no other part of ZF