Turning XML nodes into PHP variables using SimpleXML on a relatively complex XML file

Question

I am using simplexml_load_string in order to attempt to turn my XML file into variables I can later enter into a database however am struggling with the output working in some instances and not in others.

The xml

$response ='<ndxml version="2.0">
<status code="OK">
<response function="createNewJob" id="1">
    <status code="OK">
    <job uniqueref="5830z858279" jobref="858279">
        <consignment number="8613030">
        <reference>16755</reference>
        <deadlinedatetime date="2014-01-16" time="17:30:00">
        <jobnumber>
        <labeldata styletag="APC">
            <shippingdate date="15/01/2014">
            <addresses>
                <address type="COLLECTION">
                    <company>UK Stuff and Things</company>
                </address>
                <address type="DELIVERY">
                    <contact>Person</contact>
                    <telephone>02089636985</telephone>
                    <addresslines>
                        <addressline number="1">Daffy</addressline>
                        <addressline number="2">Things</addressline>
                        <addressline number="3">Places</addressline>
                        <addressline number="4">NORTHAMPTONSHIRE</addressline>
                    </addresslines>
                    <postzip>NB12 1ER</postzip>
                    <country isocode="GB">United Kingdom</country>
                </address>
            </addresses>
            <notes>
            <account code="21171">
            <tariff code="MP16">
            <routing>
                <delivery>
                    <route>LOCAL</route>
                    <zone>B</zone>
                    <driver>31</driver>
                    <serviceoptions>
                </serviceoptions></delivery>
                <depots>
                    <depot number="211" type="Sending">
                    <depot number="211" type="Request">
                    <depot number="211" type="Delivery">
                </depot></depot></depot></depots>
            </routing>
            <parcels total="1">
                <dimensions height="0" width="0" length="0">
                <volweight>0.0</volweight>
                <weight>0.14</weight>
                <parcel number="1">
                    <barcode>21163148613030001</barcode>
                </parcel>
            </dimensions></parcels>
        </tariff></account></notes></shippingdate></labeldata>
    </jobnumber></deadlinedatetime></consignment></job>
</status>
</response>

So I have managed to successfully grab certain elements from this by using the recommended code on the documentation:

$parsed=simplexml_load_string($response);
$response_statuscode = $parsed->status['code'];
$response_statuscode2 = $parsed->response->status['code'];
$response_consignment_num = $parsed->response->job->consignment['number'];
$response_reference = $parsed->response->job->reference;

All of these have worked exactly as required, however from there it all goes a bit wrong for me. Things with more complicated attributes (more than one!) just don't seem to be working for me.

 $response_date = $parsed->response->job->deadlinedatetime['date'];

I also tried:

 $parsed->response->job->deadlinedatetime->attributes()->date;

And from there on I can't seem to process anything from label data properly. I am just making a mess of my understanding of the tree?

 $response_account_code = $parsed->response->job->labeldata->account['code'];

As always, thanks in advance!

Personally I would run a print_r on the $parsed object, so that you can check that SimpleXML is actually walking over the XML as you expect. It will also tell you how to access, e.g -> or [] or foreach, or similar. — user1330388
– user1330388, Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 11:14
Aaron - you have hit the nail on the head - i tried the below solution but it wasn't playing friendly either. I then went back to my original solution and print_r'd it - whereas there were elements in the xml in lower case, in the print_r they had upper cases, therefore weren't being picked up correctly! — Daffy
– Daffy, Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 14:33

Yang · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-15 11:18:39Z

1

There's a very common approach to handle situations like this one:

Since simplexml_load_string() returns an object and since object property names cannot contain spaces, it would make sense to recursively convert an object into array.

You can use this function to do that:

function object2array($object) { 
   return json_decode(json_encode($object), true); 
}

$parsed = simplexml_load_string($response);

// Now, recursively convert it into an array
$parsed = object2array($parsed);

// Now you can access its values by keys, like this:
$parsed['response']['job']['labeldata']['account'];

As for dumping, you can simply do print_r($parsed)

answered Jan 15, 2014 at 11:18

Yang

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6 Comments

Daffy Over a year ago

I feel like this is THE answer, but I'm a little confused. How do I process the values as per your last line. How would I get consignment from my example dump( [@attributes] => Array ( [version] => 2.0 ) [status] => Array ( [@attributes] => Array ( [code] => OK ) ) [response] => Array ( [@attributes] => Array ( [function] => createNewJob [id] => 1 ) [status] => Array ( [@attributes] => Array ( [code] => OK ) ) [job] => Array ( [@attributes] => Array ( [uniqueRef] => 5830z858343 [jobRef] => 858343 ) [consignment] => Array ( [@attributes] => Array ( [number] => 8613094 ) ) [reference] => 16756

Yang Over a year ago

If you add how you want an output would like, this will be much easer for me

Daffy Over a year ago

So from this I'd like to have something like $uniqueref = (the output would be 5830z858343 in this case) $consignment_number = 8613094 in this case $reference = 16756 in this case Thanks for your help

Yang Over a year ago

Just noted that your response isn't actually valid XML, because there's no closing tag for first <status (look at the second and fourth lines, please). So I just removed <ndxml version="2.0"> and <status code="OK">, then got a consignment like this, $consignment = $parsed['status']['job']['consignment']['@attributes']['number']

Yang Over a year ago

Also, you could nicely output a result of $parsed by prepending <pre> tag. Try to dump it like : echo '<pre>' . print_r($parsed, 1) and surely this would make more sense

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