PHP call a url returning XML/JSON

Question

I am absolute beginner in PHP. Sorry for a very basic API question. I am stuck while coding at a point where I need to call a URL which will return me an XML or a JSON. Now I have to capture that in a variable.

For an example, I have written the following code:

class Search {
   private $documents = array();
   public function __construct() {
      $xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
      $xmlDoc->load("solr.xml");
      .....

Now I am directly loading an XML. I dont want to do that, instead:

Step1: I want to call a http url which returns me an XML or JSON.
Step2: I need to store that in some variable like xmlDoc above
Step3: and later ofcourse I want to parse it.

I have no issues with step 3 but I just need some pointers or help as to how can I accomplish step 1 and 2?

gen_Eric · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-25 20:29:29Z

4

load should accept a URL as a parameter.

$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load('http://example.com/path/to/file.xml');

Or, you can use file_get_contents to download a URL to a string.

$xml = file_get_contents('http://example.com/path/to/file.xml');
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->loadXML($xml);

Or for JSON:

$json = json_decode(file_get_contents('http://example.com/path/to/file.json'));

answered Apr 25, 2012 at 20:29

gen_Eric

228k42 gold badges304 silver badges343 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

5 Comments

avinash shah Over a year ago

Thanks a lot Rocket!! Will this work on the fly, I mean I dont want to save XML file somewhere I just want to read the contents without IO i.e. whatever the URL returns

gen_Eric Over a year ago

Yep it'll work on the fly. You don't need to save it to a file on your drive. It will download it to RAM.

Ozzy Over a year ago

@Rocket I think he actually wants to load it from a PHP page (see his Step 1). In that case load('example.com/xml.php?some_var=value') should do. The php page will read a database, create an XML file then display it, depending on the value of some_var.

gen_Eric Over a year ago

@Ozzy: It doesn't matter where he wants to load it from (plus, he just said "from a url"). As long as the URL outputs the correct format, it can be whatever.

gen_Eric Over a year ago

@chepe263: Why use cURL when $xmlDoc->load('http://example.com/path/to/file.xml'); is one line? :-P

Bob Dolman · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-25 20:53:30Z

0

For doing this with Json you first need a page which will have some json variables.

You can do this by yourself by typing:

$jsonVar = array('var1','var2'); // several variables
echo encode_json($jsonVar);

You can access these variables by typing:

$jsonUrl = 'http://example.com/json.php';
$jsonUrl = json_decode(file_get_contents($jsonUrl));

To display one of these variables you can type:

echo $jsonUrl[1]; // you can use print_r($jsonUrl); //for displaying the right array numbers to access the vars

edited Apr 25, 2012 at 20:53

answered Apr 25, 2012 at 20:42

Bob Dolman

419 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP call a url returning XML/JSON

2 Answers 2

5 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

5 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related