[RESOLVED] rss parse function help

[reddrum]

Hi All,
I have a script I use to parse rss/xml files. I need to extract a small amount of data from a large number of files, so I have tried to create a function that would allow me to pass the url of the xml file as an arg and return the data. My problem is when I use the php xml functions from within my new function they dont work.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

$waterData = "";
   $xml_file = "http://www.crh.noaa.gov/rss/ahps2/obs/hrnm7.rss";
   $xml_desc_key = "*RSS*CHANNEL*ITEM*DESCRIPTION";
   $river_array = array();
   $strRiver = "";
   $counter = 0;
   class xml_river{
	   var $description;
   }
   function startTag($parser, $data){
	   global $current_tag;
	   $current_tag .= "*$data";
   }
   function endTag($parser, $data){
	   global $current_tag;
	   $tag_key = strrpos($current_tag, '*');
	   $current_tag = substr($current_tag, 0, $tag_key);
   }
   function contents($parser, $data){
	   global $current_tag, $xml_desc_key, $counter, $river_array, $strRiver;
      $river_array[$counter] = new xml_river();
	   if($current_tag == $xml_desc_key){
		   $river_array[$counter]->description = $data;
         $strRiver = $strRiver." ".$river_array[$counter]->description;
			$counter++;
	   }
   }
   $xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
   xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser, "startTag", "endTag");
   xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser, "contents");
   $fp = fopen($xml_file, "r") or die("Could not open file");
   $data = fread($fp, 80000);
   if(!(xml_parse($xml_parser, $data, feof($fp)))){
	   die("Error on line " . xml_get_current_line_number($xml_parser));
   }
   xml_parser_free($xml_parser);
   fclose($fp);
   if(preg_match("/Flood /", $river_array[0]->description)){
      $waterData = $river_array[0]->description." ".$river_array[8]->description." ".$river_array[13]->description;
      //echo $water;
   }
   else{
      $waterData = $river_array[0]->description;
   }