PHP SimpleXmlElement Grouping Empty XML Elements

Question

I am getting XML from a web service, and am having a hard time maintaining the order of the XML elements that are displayed.

Here is a snippet:

    <Blocks>
      <Block>
         <BlockElements>
            <Question QuestionID="QID59" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID3" />
            <Question QuestionID="QID1" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID2" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID47" />
         </BlockElements>
      </Block>
      <Block>
         <BlockElements>
            <Question QuestionID="QID6" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID8" />
            <Question QuestionID="QID49" />
            <Question QuestionID="QID45" />
            <Question QuestionID="QID50" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID9" />
            <Question QuestionID="QID10" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID11" />
            <Question QuestionID="QID12" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID13" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID14" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID15" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID16" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID17" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID18" />
            <Question QuestionID="QID19" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID20" />
            <Question QuestionID="QID21" />
            <PageBreak />
            <Question QuestionID="QID22" />
            <Question QuestionID="QID23" />
         </BlockElements>
      </Block>
    </Blocks>

The web service uses the empty elements and (elements without closing tags). The order of these elements within the BlockElements tags is crucial- it defines the layout of a form. When I turn this XML into a PHP object using a SimpleXmlElement, this is what I get:

SimpleXMLElement Object
(
    [Block] => Array
        (
            [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [BlockElements] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                        (
                            [Question] => Array
                                (
                                    [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                                        (
                                            [@attributes] => Array
                                                (
                                                    [QuestionID] => QID59
                                                )
                                        )
                                    [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                                        (
                                            [@attributes] => Array
                                                (
                                                    [QuestionID] => QID3
                                                )
                                        )
                                    [2] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                                        (
                                            [@attributes] => Array
                                                (
                                                    [QuestionID] => QID1
                                                )
                                        )
                                    [3] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                                        (
                                            [@attributes] => Array
                                                (
                                                    [QuestionID] => QID2
                                                )
                                        )
                                    [4] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                                        (
                                            [@attributes] => Array
                                                (
                                                    [QuestionID] => QID47
                                                )
                                        )
                                )
                            [PageBreak] => Array
                                (
                                    [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                                        (
                                        )
                                    [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                                        (
                                        )
                                    [2] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                                        (
                                        )
                                )
                        )
                )
....

The Question elements and PageBreak elements are separated into arrays, and their order is lost. Any advice on maintaining the order of these elements? I am not committed to using SimpleXmlElement- I'll use whatever works. Thanks!

Abdallah Arffak · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-08 21:53:11Z

1

You have to know the result of iterating of that object is not the same of result of 'print_r' or 'var_dump'

try this

$parentNode = simplexml_load_string($xml);
itNode($parentNode);

function itNode($parentNode){
 if($parentNode->children())
  foreach ( $parentNode->children() as $node )
  {
     echo "name ==> " , $node->getName(),'<br>';
     itNode($node);
  }
}

answered Jan 8, 2015 at 21:53

Abdallah Arffak

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