Parsing a complicated XML file with PHP using DOM

Question

I would like to parse and extract information from an XML file for example I would like to extract the following things:

uio, batchId and creationDate from the header
All the accountToken, Id, setId, Amount, etc from the body
batchCount and TotalAmount from the footer

This is my XML file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<c:Instructions xmlns:c="http://www.localhost.com/platform">
  <c:Header uio="a881-aa05-1231391408a2" batchId="c7-8ef6-eb81b345e736" creationDate="2014-08-10T00:00:00.000Z" />
  <c:Instructions accountToken="0001578066518896635248066746078163233357907196" Id="4178- a6dd-d1459cda71c3" setId="132530196846" Amount="27.00" Description="GoulSalons and Spas" Timestamp="2014-08-10T05:37:56.000Z" TransactionId="1324300196883" TransactionTimestamp="2014-08-07T18:32:30.000Z" merchant="1307" consumer="1_4f13eb-4efb-b450- ca747763fbc4" store="363" campaign="Partner, Parnd Spas, Partner, Pilot, 5/30/14" />
  <c:Instructions accountToken="000227229359641325887385737985006" Id="-08eb-43dd-884b-ccae980372f8" setId="2271109667569" Amount="12.24" Description="Pyro's Pi" Timestamp="2014-08-10T03:00:05.000Z" TransactionId="291153267592" TransactionTimestamp="2014-08-07T00:00:00.000Z" merchant="13" consumer="0d3-4ef3-8922-932f0d860012" store="31" campaign=" Challenge Pyro&amp;#39;s Partner, Pilot, 4/4/14" />
  <c:Instructions accountToken="0002108430726669005078952425" Id="bf48-4f86-84f6-df69432ef65b" setId="1211100232621" Amount="26.95" Description="Blue" Timestamp="2014-08-10T05:37:20.000Z" TransactionId="121030232642" TransactionTimestamp="2014-08-07T17:48:29.000Z" merchant="104880" consumer="2-4d32-a2b4-f0b54a8e50b5" store="39" campaign="Partner Challenge Blue Fin, Pilot, 5/30/14" />
  <c:Instructions accountToken="000341863769868297728447318744937673" Id="bf48-4f86-84f6-df69432ef65b" setId="1260320211819" Amount="52.00" Description="Fin" Timestamp="2014-08-10T05:37:41.000Z" TransactionId="1259211836" TransactionTimestamp="2014-08-08T02:41:47.000Z" merchant="180" consumer="6be4-46cd-95b8-244ab78c50ce" store="52" campaign="Partner Challenge Blue Fin, Partner, Pilot, 5/30/14" />
  <c:Instructions accountToken="000521692104031759552776822005" Id="42f0-4850-9e33-54e7d79927d9" setId="29126329667269" Amount="17.00" Description=" Bear" Timestamp="2014-08-10T03:00:05.000Z" TransactionId="291259667289" TransactionTimestamp="2014-08-08T00:00:00.000Z" merchant="137" consumer="71bb-46d2-8e42-c9798d7dd0d7" store="39" campaign="Partner Challenge Blind Bear, Partner, Pilot, 5/22/14" />
  <c:Instructions accountToken="0005216177101271759552776822005" Id="42f0-4850-9e33-54e7d79927d9" setId="29134327117182" Amount="9.00" Description="Bear" Timestamp="2014-08-10T03:00:05.000Z" TransactionId="29124667297" TransactionTimestamp="2014-08-08T00:00:00.000Z" merchant="132" consumer="71bb-46d2-8e42-c9798d7dd0d7" store="398" campaign="   Bear, Partner, Pilot, 5" />
  <c:Footer batchCount="6" totalAmount="144" />
</c:Instructions>

So, I wrote this code to at least retrieve AccountToken and Id but I get a blank page:

<?php
$doc = new DOMDocument;
$doc->load("sample.xml");
$rows = $doc->getElementsByTagNameNS('http://www.localhost.com/platform', 'Instruction');
foreach ($rows as $row) {
$AToken = $row->getAttribute('accountToken');
$Id    = $row->getAttribute('Id');
var_dump($AToken, $Id);
}
?>

But I haven't been able to get anything from the XML file.

This is an odd XML file; child elements with same name as, but different function from, the parent? What does print_r($rows) show you before the foreach loop? — miken32
– miken32, Commented Oct 30, 2014 at 19:54
@miken32 print_r($rows) won't show anything because there are no nodes named Instruction in the document. — i alarmed alien
– i alarmed alien, Commented Oct 30, 2014 at 20:16

zack.lore · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-30 19:49:29Z

1

Should that be Instructions instead of Instruction in the getElementsByTagNameNS call?

answered Oct 30, 2014 at 19:49

zack.lore

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1 Comment

i alarmed alien Over a year ago

This doesn't answer the question (although the observation is correct!).

i alarmed alien · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-30 20:26:18Z

The XML document you have is a little odd as the top element is same as its direct children. For this reason, I would use DOMXPath to retrieve the elements you want from the document (OK, and XPaths are awesome!). To use DOMXPath, you'll need to create a new DOMXPath object and register the namespace, http://www.localhost.com/platform, so it can search those elements.

NB: your script wasn't working because there are no Instruction elements in the document--they're all Instructions. :)

Here's a simple and easily-extensible script that will pull data out of the document that you've posted. It just prints the data, but you will probably want to do something a bit more fancy with it.

$doc = new DOMDocument;
$doc->load( $your_xml_here );

# create the DOMXPath object
$xp = new DOMXPath($doc);
# registers the namespace; to search for nodes in this namespace, prefix them with "c"
$xp->registerNamespace("c", 'http://www.localhost.com/platform');

# search for all c:Header nodes under the top node, c:Instructions
foreach ($xp->query("/c:Instructions/c:Header") as $h) {
    # array of attributes to retrieve...
    foreach (array('uio', 'batchId', 'creationDate') as $ha) {
        print "header attribute $ha: " . $h->getAttribute($ha) . PHP_EOL;
    }
}

# retrieves c:Instructions nodes that are under the c:Instructions node
foreach ($xp->query("/c:Instructions/c:Instructions") as $i) {
    # you can expand the list of attributes here
    foreach (array("Id", "accountToken") as $ia) {
        print "Instruction attrib $ia: " . $i->getAttribute($ia) . PHP_EOL;
    }
}

# footer information    
foreach ($xp->query("/c:Instructions/c:Footer") as $f) {
    foreach (array("batchCount", "totalAmount") as $fa) {
        print "footer attribute $fa: " . $f->getAttribute($fa) . PHP_EOL;
    }
}

Output for the XML you posted:

header attribute uio: a881-aa05-1231391408a2
header attribute batchId: c7-8ef6-eb81b345e736
header attribute creationDate: 2014-08-10T00:00:00.000Z
Instruction attrib Id: 4178- a6dd-d1459cda71c3
Instruction attrib accountToken: 0001578066518896635248066746078163233357907196
Instruction attrib Id: -08eb-43dd-884b-ccae980372f8
Instruction attrib accountToken: 000227229359641325887385737985006
Instruction attrib Id: bf48-4f86-84f6-df69432ef65b
Instruction attrib accountToken: 0002108430726669005078952425
Instruction attrib Id: bf48-4f86-84f6-df69432ef65b
Instruction attrib accountToken: 000341863769868297728447318744937673
Instruction attrib Id: 42f0-4850-9e33-54e7d79927d9
Instruction attrib accountToken: 000521692104031759552776822005
Instruction attrib Id: 42f0-4850-9e33-54e7d79927d9
Instruction attrib accountToken: 0005216177101271759552776822005
footer attribute batchCount: 6
footer attribute totalAmount: 144

Addendum: if you're getting all the attributes, it might be quicker to run the equivalent code using SimpleXMLElement:

$sxe = new SimpleXMLElement( $xml_source );
$sxe->registerXPathNamespace("c", 'http://www.localhost.com/platform');

# e.g. get the header data
foreach ($sxe->xpath("/c:Instructions/c:Header") as $i) {
    # iterate through all the element attributes
    foreach ($i->attributes() as $name => $value) {
        print "header attribute $name is $value" . PHP_EOL;
    }
}

Output:

header attribute uio is a881-aa05-1231391408a2
header attribute batchId is c7-8ef6-eb81b345e736
header attribute creationDate is 2014-08-10T00:00:00.000Z

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