xml parsing. xpath?

[nc_phpguy]

Hi,

I have been trying for days to get this XML parsed properly, but I cannot seem to do it. I have scoured these boards trying everything that was suggested, but nothing seems to be working for me.

The XML is returned from a web services call via a POSt. The below XML is returned.

What I need is to grab specific values of the ITEM ID attribute. So, I need to get the first_name, last_name, and email values.

Any help would be very appreciated! Btw: I am runnig PHP5.

here is the XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<string xmlns="http://www.xxx.net">
<root>
<global_info>
<item id="Time" value="3/28/2006 4:10:07 PM" />
<item id="WEBSERVER" value="people.xxx.net/" />
<item id="EMP_IMAGE_PATH" value="images/employee_images/137x170/" />
<item id="EMP_IMAGE_PATH_SMALL" value="images/employee_images/60x70" />
<item id="total_rows" value="2" />
</global_info>

	<parameters>
		<item id="TYPE" value="L" /><item id="PATTERN" value="barnes, t" />
	</parameters>

	<table id="results" count="2">
		<row status="">
			<item id="last_name" value="BARNES" />
			<item id="first_name" value="TIM" />
			<item id="email" value="[e-mail]" />
		</row>
		<row status="">
			<item id="last_name" value="BARNES" />
			<item id="first_name" value="TODD" />
			<item id="email" value="[e-mail]" />
		</row>
	</table>
</root>

</string>

[samudasu]

Use the simpleXml functions. It makes getting values really easy. Try it first and post your code. If you can't get it working then i'll help you out.

[nc_phpguy]

this is not working for me:

<?php

$xmlstr= "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" ?>
<string xmlns=\"http://www.xxx.net\">
<root>
<global_info>
<item id=\"Time\" value=\"3/28/2006 4:10:07 PM\" />
<item id=\"WEBSERVER\" value=\"people.xxx.net/\" />
<item id=\"EMP_IMAGE_PATH\" value=\"images/employee_images/137x170/\" />
<item id=\"EMP_IMAGE_PATH_SMALL\" value=\"images/employee_images/60x70\" />
<item id=\"total_rows\" value=\"2\" />
</global_info>

	<parameters>
		<item id=\"TYPE\" value=\"L\" /><item id=\"PATTERN\" value=\"barnes, t\" />
	</parameters>

	<table id=\"results\" count=\"2\">
		<row status=\"\">
			<item id=\"last_name\" value=\"BARNES\" />
			<item id=\"first_name\" value=\"TIM\" />
			<item id=\"email\" value=\"[e-mail]\" />
		</row>
		<row status=\"\">
			<item id=\"last_name\" value=\"BARNES\" />
			<item id=\"first_name\" value=\"TODD\" />
			<item id=\"email\" value=\"[e-mail]\" />
		</row>
	</table>
</root>

</string>";

$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);

foreach ($xml->xpath('//row') as $row) {
echo $row->xpath("item[@id='first_name']")->value, $row->xpath("item[@id='last_name']")->value, '<br />';
}
?>

thoughts?

[samudasu]

You shouldn't need to use xpath. Just do something like this:

<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);
foreach ($xml->root->table->row as $values) {
    print (string) $values->item[0]['value'] . "<br />";
    print (string) $values->item[1]['value'] . "<br />";
    print (string) $values->item[2]['value'] . "<br />";
}
?>

[samudasu]

Here's one other thing that will help you out. Before you start coding, print out the xml document structure. It'll give you a great view to work off of.

$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr); 
print "<pre>";
print_r($xml);
print "</pre>";

[nc_phpguy]

Thanks for the help, but:

The XML actually has about 40 ITEM elements per row, all with different IDs and Values. I only need the three. So, I need a way to grab only the ones with the IDs of 'first_name', 'last_name' and 'email'.

So, should XPATH be utilized then?

Thanks again.

[samudasu]

If the first_name, last_name, and email indexes don't change for each row, then you can use the first example i posted. You can also use xpath but there are a few things you must do to get it working. Using xpath with php, you'll run into problems with xml namespaces. If you use it, you'll need to do something like $xmlstr = str_replace('xmlns=', 'n=', $xmlstr); before doing any operations on the xml. Here's another easy way without xpath that'll return the values.

$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);
foreach ($xml->root->table->row as $rows) {
    foreach($rows->item as $items) {
        if ($items['id'] == 'first_name') {
            print (string) $items['value'] . "<br />";
        } elseif ($items['id'] == 'last_name') {
            print (string) $items['value'] . "<br />";
        } elseif ($items['id'] == 'email') {
            print (string) $items['value'] . "<br /><br />";
        }
    }
}

[nc_phpguy]

Thank you very much. The code works great! And thanks for the mention of the namespace issue.

Cheers!