Retrieving CDATA contents from XML using PHP and simplexml

Question

I have the following XML structure:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<course xml:lang="nl">
  <body>
    <item id="787900813228567" view="12000" title="0x|Beschrijving" engtitle="0x|Description"><![CDATA[Dit college leert studenten hoe ze een onderzoek kunn$
    <item id="5453116633894965" view="12000" title="0x|Onderwijsvorm" engtitle="0x|Method of instruction"><![CDATA[instructiecollege]]></item>
    <item id="7433550075448316" view="12000" title="0x|Toetsing" engtitle="0x|Examination"><![CDATA[Opdrachten/werkstuk]]></item>
    <item id="015071401858970545" view="12000" title="0x|Literatuur" engtitle="0x|Required reading"><![CDATA[Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Wi$
    <item id="5960589172957031" view="12000" title="0x|Uitbreiding" engtitle="0x|Expansion"><![CDATA[]]></item>
    <item id="3610066867901779" view="12000" title="0x|Aansluiting" engtitle="0x|Place in study program"><![CDATA[]]></item>
    <item id="19232369892482925" view="12000" title="0x|Toegangseisen" engtitle="0x|Course requirements"><![CDATA[]]></item>
    <item id="3332396346891524" view="12000" title="0x|Doelgroep" engtitle="0x|Target audience"><![CDATA[]]></item>
    <item id="6606851872934866" view="12000" title="0x|Aanmelden bij" engtitle="0x|Enrollment at"><![CDATA[]]></item>
    <item id="1478643580820973" view="12000" title="0x|Informatie bij" engtitle="0x|Information at"><![CDATA[Docent]]></item>
    <item id="9710608434763993" view="12000" title="0x|Rooster" engtitle="0x|Schedule"><![CDATA[1e semester, maandag 15.00-17.00, zaal 1175/030]]></item>
  </body>
</course>

I want to get the data from one of the item tags. To get to this tag, I use the following xpath:

$description = $xml->xpath("//item[@title='0x|Beschrijving']");

This does indeed return an array in the form of:

Array
(
    [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
        (
            [@attributes] => Array
                (
                    [id] => 787900813228567
                    [view] => 12000
                    [title] => 0x|Beschrijving
                    [engtitle] => 0x|Description
                )
        )
)

But where is the actual information (that is stored between the item tags) located? I must be doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what that might be... Probably something really simple... Help would be appreciated.

DreamWerx · Accepted Answer · 2008-09-23 09:41:17Z

15

When you load the XML file, you'll need to handle the CDATA.. This example works:

<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_file('file.xml', NULL, LIBXML_NOCDATA);
$description = $xml->xpath("//item[@title='0x|Beschrijving']");
var_dump($description);
?>

Here's the output:

array(1) {
  [0]=>
  object(SimpleXMLElement)#2 (2) {
    ["@attributes"]=>
    array(4) {
      ["id"]=>
      string(15) "787900813228567"
      ["view"]=>
      string(5) "12000"
      ["title"]=>
      string(15) "0x|Beschrijving"
      ["engtitle"]=>
      string(14) "0x|Description"
    }
    [0]=>
    string(41) "Dit college leert studenten hoe ze een on"
  }
}

answered Sep 23, 2008 at 9:41

DreamWerx

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Comments

Marc Gear · Accepted Answer · 2008-09-23 09:40:35Z

2

I believe its equivalent to the __toString() method on the object, so

echo $description[0];

Should display it, or you can cast it;

$str = (string) $description[0];

answered Sep 23, 2008 at 9:40

Marc Gear

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2 Comments

Michiel Over a year ago

That does the tricky nicely. I still find it weird that using print_r still doesn't show any data, while it is there... Thanks for the tip !

Till Over a year ago

I think there is some issue with CDATA and SimpleXML. If you try your XML example and remove the CDATA-wrappers, the text will show up. I can't figure out why though.

Rob · Accepted Answer · 2008-09-23 09:42:22Z

2

Take a look at the PHP.net documentation for "SimpleXMLElement" (http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.simplexml-element-children.php) it looks like converting the node to a string "(string)$value;" does the trick.

Failing that, there's plenty of examples on that page that should point you in the right direction!

answered Sep 23, 2008 at 9:42

Rob

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Comments

Rob · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-07 08:35:43Z

1

$description = $xml->xpath("//item[@title='0x|Beschrijving']");

while(list( , $node) = each($description)) {

echo($node);

}

dreamwerx's solution is better

edited Apr 7, 2011 at 8:35

Rob

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answered Sep 23, 2008 at 9:40

Eric_WVGG

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