Using SimpleXML to load remote URL

Question

I am trying to use SimpleXML to load a remote URL.

If I type into my browser the following;

http://api.ean.com/ean-services/rs/hotel/v3/list?cid=55505&minorRev=12&apiKey=2hkhej72gxyas3ky6hhjtsga&locale=en_US&currencyCode=USD&customerIpAddress=10.184.2.9&customerUserAgent=Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+6.1;+en-US;+rv:1.9.2.25)+Gecko/20111212+Firefox/3.6.25&customerSessionId=&xml=<HotelListRequest><arrivalDate>01/22/2012</arrivalDate><departureDate>01/24/2012</departureDate><RoomGroup><Room><numberOfAdults>1</numberOfAdults><numberOfChildren>1</numberOfChildren><childAges>4</childAges></Room></RoomGroup><city>Amsterdam</city><countryCode>NL</countryCode><supplierCacheTolerance>MED</supplierCacheTolerance></HotelListRequest> 

It works!

If I try;

$url = 'http://api.ean.com/ean-services/rs/hotel/v3/list?cid=55505&minorRev=12&apiKey=2hkhej72gxyas3ky6hhjtsga&locale=en_US&currencyCode=USD&customerIpAddress=10.184.2.9&customerUserAgent=Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+6.1;+en-US;+rv:1.9.2.25)+Gecko/20111212+Firefox/3.6.25&customerSessionId=&xml=<HotelListRequest><arrivalDate>01/22/2012</arrivalDate><departureDate>01/24/2012</departureDate><RoomGroup><Room><numberOfAdults>1</numberOfAdults><numberOfChildren>1</numberOfChildren><childAges>4</childAges></Room></RoomGroup><city>Amsterdam</city><countryCode>NL</countryCode><supplierCacheTolerance>MED</supplierCacheTolerance></HotelListRequest> ';
$xml = simplexml_load_file($url);

I get met with the following error;

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: http://api.ean.com/ean-services/rs/hotel/v3/list?cid=55505&minorRev=12&apiKey=2hkhej72gxyas3ky6hhjtsga&locale=en_US&currencyCode=USD&customerIpAddress=10.184.2.9&customerUserAgent=Mozilla/5.0%2B(Windows;%2BU;%2BWindows%2BNT%2B6.1;%2Ben-US;%2Brv:1.9.2.25)%2BGecko/20111212%2BFirefox/3.6.25&customerSessionId=&xml=%3CHotelListRequest%3E%3CarrivalDate%3E01/22/2012%3C/arrivalDate%3E%3CdepartureDate%3E01/24/2012%3C/departureDate%3E%3CRoomGroup%3E%3CRoom%3E%3CnumberOfAdults%3E1%3C/numberOfAdults%3E%3CnumberOfChildren%3E1%3C/numberOfChildren%3E%3CchildAges%3E4%3C/childAges%3E%3C/Room%3E%3C/RoomGroup%3E%3Ccity%3EAmsterdam%3C/city%3E%3CcountryCode%3ENL%3C/countryCode%3E%3CsupplierCacheTolerance%3EMED%3C/supplierCacheTolerance%3E%3C/HotelListRequest%3E%20:1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found in C:\Program Files\XAMPP\xampplite\htdocs\hotel\results.php on line 29

The most notable part of that error is: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found

I would like to access that file and use PHP/SimpleXML to format the results - but thus far I am stuck.

I thought that this thread HERE which talks about rawurlencode may have helped but it didn't, either that or I'm missing something.

Answer 1

The results are coming back as json. Replace simplexml_load_file with json_decode and you will see a proper object.

If you want to use xml, you need to specify it in the headers. The following code will return valid xml:

$context  = stream_context_create(array('http' => array('header' => 'Accept: application/xml')));
$url = 'http://api.ean.com/ean-services/rs/hotel/v3/list?cid=55505&minorRev=12&apiKey=2hkhej72gxyas3ky6hhjtsga&locale=en_US&currencyCode=USD&customerIpAddress=10.184.2.9&customerSessionId=&xml=<HotelListRequest><arrivalDate>01/22/2012</arrivalDate><departureDate>01/24/2012</departureDate><RoomGroup><Room><numberOfAdults>1</numberOfAdults><numberOfChildren>1</numberOfChildren><childAges>4</childAges></Room></RoomGroup><city>Amsterdam</city><countryCode>NL</countryCode><supplierCacheTolerance>MED</supplierCacheTolerance></HotelListRequest> ';

$xml = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xml);
print_r($xml);
?>