Reading XML from URL with PHP

Question

I want to read some data from an xml feed and show it on a webpage using php. This is the feed URL: http://api.autoit.dk/car/GetCarsExtended/391B093F-BB4A-45AA-BEFF-7B33842401EA

I have been told that the service is able to return both JSON and XML, depending on what the client accepts in the header content type. I have been trying to go with XML, but I get some errors:

Warning: simplexml_load_string(): Entity: line 1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found in /home/www/flexto.dk/test.php on line 3

Warning: simplexml_load_string(): [{"ComId":4712,"Husnr":10,"Navn":"Flexto A/S","By":"Støvring","Postnr":9530,"Ad in /home/www/flexto.dk/test.php on line 3

Warning: simplexml_load_string(): ^ in /home/www/flexto.dk/test.php on line 3 Error: Cannot create object

See my online test script.

It should be pretty simple, but I haven't had luck with it. Would anyone help me get it straight? My test.php document looks as simple as this:

$xml = simplexml_load_string( file_get_contents( 'http://api.autoit.dk/car/GetCarsExtended/391B093F-BB4A-45AA-BEFF-7B33842401EA' ) )
       or die("Error: Cannot create object");

What error(s) do you get?

Mike Brant
– Mike Brant

2014-10-21 17:23:06 +00:00
Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 17:23 — Mike Brant
– Mike Brant, Commented Oct 21, 2014 at 17:23

i alarmed alien · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-21 17:39:50Z

2

If you run the following code, you'll see that you're actually getting JSON as response:

$resp = file_get_contents( 'http://api.autoit.dk/car/GetCarsExtended/391B093F-BB4A-45AA-BEFF-7B33842401EA' );
echo $resp;

Output:

[{"ComId":4712,"Husnr":10,"Navn":"Flexto A/S","By":"Støvring","Postnr":9530,"Adresse":"Juelstrupparken","Email":"[email protected]","Telefon":"96365225","KoeretoejId":641321,"Abs":true,"Accelerationsevne0Til100Kmt":null,"AirbagsAntal":6,"Beskrivelse":"- og meget mere.\nDette er et flexleasingtilbud, udbetaling 45.000,- depot 16.000,- leasingydelse 5.700,- alt excl. moms. Restværdi efter 3 år 121.000 excl. afgift.","BreddeMm":1841,

(etc.)

SimpleXML is not able to convert JSON into an object, so it's obviously throwing an error.

If you want to use the JSON data instead of XML, you can simply decode the JSON:

$data = json_decode($resp, true); // or json_decode($resp) for objects rather than arrays

Part of $data:

(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [ComId] => 4712
            [Husnr] => 10
            [Navn] => Flexto A/S
            [By] => Støvring
            [Postnr] => 9530
            [Adresse] => Juelstrupparken
            [Email] => [email protected]

If you want the XML data, you'll need to set the appropriate headers when calling file_get_contents:

$opts = array(
    'http' => array(
        'header' => "Accept: application/xml"
    )
);

$context = stream_context_create($opts);

$response = file_get_contents( 'http://api.autoit.dk/car/GetCarsExtended/391B093F-BB4A-45AA-BEFF-7B33842401EA', NULL, $context );

Output now:

<ArrayOfDealerCarExtended xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/AutoITApis.Controllers"><DealerCarExtended><Abs>true</Abs><Accelerationsevne0Til100Kmt i:nil="true" />

(etc.)

See stream_context_create for more information on how to set up headers for file_get_contents.

edited Oct 21, 2014 at 17:39

answered Oct 21, 2014 at 17:26

i alarmed alien

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3 Comments

Ohgodwhy Over a year ago

While you did address why it doesn't work, he actually wants the XML response. Could you show how to use a stream context with header variants before calling the file_get_contents method

i alarmed alien Over a year ago

@Ohgodwhy Am checking the API of autoit to see what it wants in the request.

rjdown Over a year ago

He said in the question, you just need to set xml as an accept type in the header. See my answer...

rjdown · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-21 17:32:49Z

2

Curl might be a better option, but you can set the appropriate headers in file_get_contents too:

$options = array(
    'http' => array(
        'method' => "GET",
        'header' => "Accept: application/xml\r\n"
    )
);
$context = stream_context_create($options);
$url = 'http://api.autoit.dk/car/GetCarsExtended/391B093F-BB4A-45AA-BEFF-7B33842401EA';
$xml = simplexml_load_string(file_get_contents($url, false, $context)) or die("Error: Cannot create object");

Of course, you could just use JSON instead! :)

answered Oct 21, 2014 at 17:32

rjdown

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1 Comment

shamsulfakhar Over a year ago

dude, you are such a lifesaver! after hours of searching, your snippet solves my problem! THANKS A GAZILLION!!!

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:11:42Z

1

Potential duplicate: Loading a remote xml page with file_get_contents()

I would use cURL for something like this.

Here is a slightly modified example from http://php.net/manual/en/curl.examples-basic.php :

<?php

$ch = curl_init();

$options = array(CURLOPT_URL => 'http://www.example.com/',
                 CURLOPT_HEADER => true,
                 CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => 'Content-type: application/xml'
                );

curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);

$data = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

 if($data) {
    $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);

    echo $xml;
 }
?>

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:11

CommunityBot

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answered Oct 21, 2014 at 17:26

cpk

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2 Comments

Ohgodwhy Over a year ago

You're using fopen for no reason. This doesn't address the returned data type, either. It's simply just copy+pasta.

Ohgodwhy Over a year ago

But your header is still wrong, you see, the data is returned in JSON format, if you want to read the data as xml you need to change your CURLOPT_HEADER to use an array that declares the content-type as application/xml, then this will work and I'll remove my -1 =)

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