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Retrieving CDATA contents from XML using PHP and simplexml

I have the following XML structure:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<course xml:lang="nl">
  <body>
    <item id="787900813228567" view="12000" title="0x|Beschrijving" engtitle="0x|Description"><![CDATA[Dit college leert studenten hoe ze een onderzoek kunn$
    <item id="5453116633894965" view="12000" title="0x|Onderwijsvorm" engtitle="0x|Method of instruction"><![CDATA[instructiecollege]]></item>
    <item id="7433550075448316" view="12000" title="0x|Toetsing" engtitle="0x|Examination"><![CDATA[Opdrachten/werkstuk]]></item>
    <item id="015071401858970545" view="12000" title="0x|Literatuur" engtitle="0x|Required reading"><![CDATA[Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Wi$
    <item id="5960589172957031" view="12000" title="0x|Uitbreiding" engtitle="0x|Expansion"><![CDATA[]]></item>
    <item id="3610066867901779" view="12000" title="0x|Aansluiting" engtitle="0x|Place in study program"><![CDATA[]]></item>
    <item id="19232369892482925" view="12000" title="0x|Toegangseisen" engtitle="0x|Course requirements"><![CDATA[]]></item>
    <item id="3332396346891524" view="12000" title="0x|Doelgroep" engtitle="0x|Target audience"><![CDATA[]]></item>
    <item id="6606851872934866" view="12000" title="0x|Aanmelden bij" engtitle="0x|Enrollment at"><![CDATA[]]></item>
    <item id="1478643580820973" view="12000" title="0x|Informatie bij" engtitle="0x|Information at"><![CDATA[Docent]]></item>
    <item id="9710608434763993" view="12000" title="0x|Rooster" engtitle="0x|Schedule"><![CDATA[1e semester, maandag 15.00-17.00, zaal 1175/030]]></item>
  </body>
</course>

I want to get the data from one of the item tags. To get to this tag, I use the following xpath:

$description = $xml->xpath("//item[@title='0x|Beschrijving']");

This does indeed return an array in the form of:

Array
(
    [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
        (
            [@attributes] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 787900813228567
                    [view] => 12000
                    [title] => 0x|Beschrijving
                    [engtitle] => 0x|Description
                )
        )
)

But where is the actual information (that is stored between the item tags) located? I must be doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what that might be... Probably something really simple... Help would be appreciated.

like image 554
Michiel Avatar asked Sep 23 '08 09:09

Michiel


2 Answers

When you load the XML file, you'll need to handle the CDATA.. This example works:

<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_file('file.xml', NULL, LIBXML_NOCDATA);
$description = $xml->xpath("//item[@title='0x|Beschrijving']");
var_dump($description);
?>

Here's the output:

array(1) {
  [0]=>
  object(SimpleXMLElement)#2 (2) {
    ["@attributes"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["id"]=>
      string(15) "787900813228567"
      ["view"]=>
      string(5) "12000"
      ["title"]=>
      string(15) "0x|Beschrijving"
      ["engtitle"]=>
      string(14) "0x|Description"
    }
    [0]=>
    string(41) "Dit college leert studenten hoe ze een on"
  }
}
like image 161
DreamWerx Avatar answered Nov 30 '22 13:11

DreamWerx


I believe its equivalent to the __toString() method on the object, so

echo $description[0];

Should display it, or you can cast it;

$str = (string) $description[0];
like image 23
Marc Gear Avatar answered Nov 30 '22 14:11

Marc Gear