Parsing remote xml in php with simpleXML

Question

I have the following xml

<rss>
<channel>   
<item><title><![CDATA[bla]]></title><description><![CDATA[desc1]]></description><link>blah</link></item>
<item><title><![CDATA[bleh]]></title><description><![CDATA[desc2]]></description><link>blahhh</link></item>
</rss>
</channel>

I want to get all the text in "description" however it is surrounded by CDATA.I thought the following would work

$xmlurl = file_get_contents('http://anxmlfile.xml');    
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlurl, null, LIBXML_NOCDATA);

foreach ($xml->item as $item) {
   echo $item->description->innertext;
}

I was expecting the scrript to echo "desc1desc2", however nothing is ever echo'd.

*UPDATE

Here is some full code (I am making an rss reader)

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('http://www.skysports.com/rss/0,20514,11661,00.xml', LIBXML_NOCDATA, true);


/* For each <character> node, we echo a separate <name>. */
foreach ($xml->item as $item) {
   echo (string)$item->description;
}

Just a minor improvement: The loading of the xml can be achieved using $xml = new SimpleXMLElement('http://anxmlfile.xml', LIBXML_NOCDATA, true); — Sgoettschkes
– Sgoettschkes, Commented Mar 21, 2012 at 15:51

cypher · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-21 15:57:48Z

3

SimpleXML is kind of tricky, you need to explicitly typecast everything,

echo (string)$item->description;

should work.

EDIT: also, what's with the "innertext"? Cut that out. And another thing, in that XML, is the content wrapped in some root node, such as <items>? If not, foreach won't work.

EDIT2: okay, after the edited question, it becomes clearer, you're doing the iteration wrong, leaving out <channel>. This will work:

foreach ($xml->channel->item as $item) {
   echo (string)$item->description;
}

edited Mar 21, 2012 at 15:57

answered Mar 21, 2012 at 15:41

cypher

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2 Comments

brux Over a year ago

Hi cypher, there is a root node "rss" and the parent node of item is "channel". I have edited my post with a replicatable piece of code

brux Over a year ago

I love you and I want to have your babies.

Hidde Stokvis · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-21 15:48:00Z

0

I believe this would work:

echo $item->description

Leaving the innertext out.

answered Mar 21, 2012 at 15:48

Hidde Stokvis

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