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PHP: Parsing XML file

Hi
I'm attempting to pass an XML file

    $xml = simplexml_load_file('test.xml');
 
   var_dump($xml);

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Produces

\\Path\To\test.php
object(SimpleXMLElement)[1]
  public 'title' => string "My Title" (length=8)
 ........
public  'properties ' =>
           array (size=1234)
                  0=>
                    object(SimpleXMLElement)[2]
                  2=>
                    object(SimpleXMLElement)[2]
                  3=>
                    object(SimpleXMLElement)[4]

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Before some one asks I cannot upload the xml file but it looks like this (There might be errors due to fat fingers)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<resultset  xmlns="http://example.com/" xmlns:ns2="http://example.com/path/to/file" xmlns:ns2="http://example.com/path/to/other/file">
  <title>The Searchers</title>
  <date>1956</date>
  <properties >
    <ns2:name>overview</ns2:name>
    <ns2:value  xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  xsi:type="xs:string">As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.</ns2:value>
  </properties >
  <properties >
    <ns2:name>Director</ns2:name>
    <ns2:value  xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  xsi:type="xs:string">John Ford</ns2:value>
  </properties >
  <properties >
    <ns2:name>actors</ns2:name>
    <ns2:value xmlns:xsi="http://example.com/XMLSchema" xsi:type="ns2:list">
       <ns2:entries xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  xsi:type="xs:string">John Wayne</ns2:entries>
       <ns2:entries xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  xsi:type="xs:string">Jeffrey Hunter</ns2:entries>
       <ns2:entries xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  xsi:type="xs:string">Vera Miles</ns2:entries>
       <ns2:entries xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  xsi:type="xs:string">Natalie Wood</ns2:entries>
</ns2:value>
  </properties >
 <filmData>
    <location>Monument Valley</location>
     <imdb>https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049730/</imdb>
 <filmData>
</resultset>';

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Could someone suggest how to get the value of title and how to loop through the "Properties Array" accessing the elements of object(SimpleXMLElement)[2] (In the XML these are Name Value pears that don't show up in the var_dump also the parts of filmData?

Julian Hansen

The title

$title = (string)$xml->title;

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The properties. But there is a watch-it here - the third entry has an array of entries so you would need to account for that in your output

foreach($xml->properties as $r) {
  echo "Name: " . $r->name . "<br>";
  echo "Value:" . $r->value . "<br>";
}

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trevor1940

ASKER

The title works but

foreach($xml->properties as $r) {
  echo "Name: " . $r->name . "<br>";
  echo "Value:" . $r->value . "<br>";
}

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Gives

Name:
Value:
Name:
Value:

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I'm assuming I can get above to work I'll need do something like

foreach($xml->properties as $r) {
  $name = $r->name;
  if($name == "actors"){
    // process as array??
}
else{
  echo "Name: " . $name . "<br>";
  echo "Value:" . $r->value . "<br>";
  }
}

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Julian Hansen

It would depend on your data - I had to work on a modified version of the xml you posted as it did not work as presented.

You can also try casting your values to strings (string)$r->name.

As for accessing the entries - you can just check if it exists and then do

$xml = simplexml_load_file('t3400.xml');
$title = $xml->title;
echo $title;
echo "<pre>";
foreach($xml->properties as $r) {
	echo "Name: " . $r->name . "\n";

	if (isset($r->value->entries)) {
		foreach($r->value->entries as $p) {
			echo "A: {$p}\n";
		}
	}
	else {
		echo "Value:" . $r->value . "\n";
	}
}
echo "</pre>";

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Using XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<resultset  xmlns:xs="http://example.com/" xmlns:ns2="http://example.com/path/to/other/file">
  <title>The Searchers</title>
  <date>1956</date>
  <properties>
    <name>overview</name>
    <value>As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.</value>
  </properties>
  <properties >
    <name>Director</name>
    <value>John Ford</value>
  </properties >
  <properties>
    <name>actors</name>
    <value>
       <entries xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  xsi:type="xs:string">John Wayne</entries>
       <entries xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  xsi:type="xs:string">Jeffrey Hunter</entries>
       <entries xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  xsi:type="xs:string">Vera Miles</entries>
       <entries xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"  xsi:type="xs:string">Natalie Wood</entries>
</value>
  </properties >
 <filmData>
    <location>Monument Valley</location>
     <imdb>https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049730/</imdb>
 </filmData>
</resultset>

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Produces

The Searchers

Name: overview
Value:As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.
Name: Director
Value:John Ford
Name: actors
A: John Wayne
A: Jeffrey Hunter
A: Vera Miles
A: Natalie Wood

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trevor1940

ASKER

I wish I was able to show you a real example but It's just not possible

 
$name =  (string)$r->name;

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Still doesn't reveal anything

Doing something like A perl script i've written in the past just errors

 
$name =  (string)$r->ns2:name;

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This isn't the way to do it I'm sure but by reading the XML in using file_get_contents
Then use str_replace to remove "ns2:"
Then process the string with $xml = simplexml_load_string($xml);

I can then access the name value pares as shown

Julian Hansen

What does this produce

echo "<pre>" . print_r($xml, true) . "</pre>";

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Can we at least see what the dump looks like to see how data is stored internally.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Julian Hansen

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Chris Harte

What Julian said.
And here is an article on the subject
https://www.experts-exchange.com/articles/11342/Reading-XML-Namespaces-using-PHP-Without-regex.html

trevor1940

ASKER

Hi
Not sure about last comment

Will try when I'm back in the office