Question about parsing XML

developaworld

I'm sending a soap request to an API and I'm receving the data back by using "var_dump($xml)".

Here is the response:

object(SimpleXMLElement)#2 (2) {
  ["@attributes"]=>
  array(3) {
    ["xmlnssoapenv"]=>
    string(41) "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
    ["xmlnsxsd"]=>
    string(32) "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
    ["xmlnsxsi"]=>
    string(41) "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  }
  ["soapenvBody"]=>
  object(SimpleXMLElement)#5 (2) {
    ["ns1checkAvailabilityMultipleResponse"]=>
    object(SimpleXMLElement)#3 (2) {
      ["@attributes"]=>
      array(2) {
        ["soapenvencodingStyle"]=>
        string(41) "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
        ["xmlnsns1"]=>
        string(45) "com.logicboxes.foundation.sfnb.order.DomOrder"
      }
      ["ns2Map"]=>
      object(SimpleXMLElement)#7 (1) {
        ["@attributes"]=>
        array(2) {
          ["href"]=>
          string(4) "#id0"
          ["xmlnsns2"]=>
          string(30) "http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap"
        }
      }
    }
    ["multiRef"]=>
    array(2) {
      [0]=>
      object(SimpleXMLElement)#4 (2) {
        ["@attributes"]=>
        array(6) {
          ["id"]=>
          string(3) "id0"
          ["soapencroot"]=>
          string(1) "0"
          ["soapenvencodingStyle"]=>
          string(41) "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
          ["xsitype"]=>
          string(7) "ns3:Map"
          ["xmlnssoapenc"]=>
          string(41) "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
          ["xmlnsns3"]=>
          string(30) "http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap"
        }
        ["item"]=>
        object(SimpleXMLElement)#8 (2) {
          ["key"]=>
          string(17) "zoomhighspeed.net"
          ["value"]=>
          object(SimpleXMLElement)#9 (1) {
            ["@attributes"]=>
            array(1) {
              ["href"]=>
              string(4) "#id1"
            }
          }
        }
      }
      [1]=>
      object(SimpleXMLElement)#6 (2) {
        ["@attributes"]=>
        array(6) {
          ["id"]=>
          string(3) "id1"
          ["soapencroot"]=>
          string(1) "0"
          ["soapenvencodingStyle"]=>
          string(41) "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
          ["xsitype"]=>
          string(7) "ns4:Map"
          ["xmlnsns4"]=>
          string(30) "http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap"
          ["xmlnssoapenc"]=>
          string(41) "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
        }
       ["item"]=>
        array(2) {
          [0]=>
          object(SimpleXMLElement)#10 (2) {
            ["key"]=>
            string(6) "status"
            ["value"]=>
            string(9) "available"
          }
          [1]=>
          object(SimpleXMLElement)#11 (2) {
            ["key"]=>
            string(8) "classkey"
            ["value"]=>
            string(6) "dotnet"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

My questions is how would I access the information and store it in variables. I'm new to this so I'll need simple examples please.

Specifically, I'm trying to access this part, I need the "Status" (Available) part.

 ["item"]=>
        array(2) {
          [0]=>
          object(SimpleXMLElement)#10 (2) {
            ["key"]=>
            string(6) "status"
            ["value"]=>
            string(9) "available"

Weedpacket

First part of the solution: don't use print_r; it's a debugging utility for developers who need to see inside an array or object.

Second part of the solution: use the [man]SimpleXML[/man] functions for accessing SimpleXML structures.

developaworld

Weedpacket;10907044 wrote:
First part of the solution: don't use print_r; it's a debugging utility for developers who need to see inside an array or object.

Second part of the solution: use the [man]SimpleXML[/man] functions for accessing SimpleXML structures.

Thanks for the reply.

But, I was using print_r exactaly for that purpose, to see the structure of the XML returned.

Secondly, I already tired SimpleXML, something I'm usually good at, but for some reason I'm having trouble accessing any of the data, hopefully you can help.

I tried this . . .

// Send off SOAP request and get response back
$response = $soapClient->__doRequest($soapXml, $host, $soapActionXmlNS, "1.1");

// SimpleXML seems to have problems with the colon ":" in the <xxx:yyy> response tags, so take them out

$xmlStringnew = preg_replace('|<([/\w]+)(:)|m','<$1',$response);  

$xmlString = preg_replace('|(\w+)(:)(\w+=\")|m','$1$3',$xmlStringnew); 

// Use SimpleXML to parse response into object
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlString);

// SimpleXML object for tags in the <soapenv:Body> node
$result = $xml->soapenvBody->item->key;

Weedpacket

developaworld wrote:
But, I was using print_r exactaly for that purpose, to see the structure of the XML returned.

Oh, but wouldn't it be easier to just look at the XML?

<soapenvEnvelope xmlnssoapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlnsxsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlnsxsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
	<soapenvBody>
		<ns1checkAvailabilityMultipleResponse soapenvencodingStyle="http://schemsa.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns1="com.logicboxed.foundation.sfnb.order.DomOrder">
			<ns2Map href="#id0" xmlns2="http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap" />
		</ns1checkAvailabilityMultipleResponse>
		<multiRef id="id0" soapencroot="0" soapenvencodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding" xsitype="ns3:Map" xmlnssoapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns3="http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap">
			<item>
				<key>zoomhighspeed.net</key>
				<value href="#id1 />
			</item>
		</multiRef>
		<multiRef id="id1" soapencroot="0" soapenvencodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding" xsitype="ns4:Map" xmlnssoapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" xmlns4="http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap">
			<item>
				<key>status</key>
				<value>available</value>
			</item>
			<item>
				<key>classkey</key>
				<value>dotnet</value>
			</item>
		</multiRef>
	</soapenvBody>
</soapenvEnvelope>

(Where I haven't put the namespace delimiters back in).

From what I can make out, $xml->soapenvBody contains a multiRef array, and that array contains the item elements. So I guess it would be $xml->soapenvBody->multiRef[0]->item->key.

// SimpleXML seems to have problems with the colon ":" in the <xxx:yyy> response tags, so take them out [/quote]
That's another reason I'm not that keen on SimpleXML: as soon as the document uses namespaces you can't use $node->tagName any more and you have to resort to $node->children('ns') instead. It's all a bit ad-hoc and pretty nonstandard. It started out simple....