Trouble Parsing XML using Ruby XML Parser

Question

I am having trouble parsing some returned XML using this command: XML::Parser.string(xml_string).parse

Here is the XML I am trying to parse:

<div style=\"border:1px solid #990000;padding-left:20px;margin:0 0 10px 0;\">
<h4>A PHP Error was encountered</h4>
<p>Severity: Notice</p>
<p>Message:  Undefined index:  HTTP_USER_AGENT</p>
<p>Filename: test</p>
<p>Line Number: test</p>
</div><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>
<response>
    <review>
        <reviewer><![CDATA[test]]></reviewer>
        <ip><![CDATA[test]]></ip>
        rating><![CDATA[test]]></rating>
        <content><![CDATA[test.]]></content>
        <date><![CDATA[test]]></date>
    </review>
</response>

I get this error:

Fatal error: XML declaration allowed only at the start of the document at :10.Fatal error: Extra content at the end of the document at :11.
LibXML::XML::Error: Fatal error: Extra content at the end of the document

What is going on here?

The PHP response told you exactly what the problem was.

Mark Thomas
– Mark Thomas

2011-12-02 21:52:51 +00:00
Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 21:52 — Mark Thomas
– Mark Thomas, Commented Dec 2, 2011 at 21:52

maerics · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-02 19:14:59Z

2

Your string is not a valid XML document; it appears to be two documents concatenated together. (The first one is a "<div>" the second one is a "<response>".)

Try separating them into two strings and parsing each of them separately.

answered Dec 2, 2011 at 19:14

maerics

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2 Comments

Alec Gorge Over a year ago

That is a hacky solution and doesn't address the root cause of the problem.

maerics Over a year ago

@alecgorge: it's not meant to be a solution to his problem, just an answer to his question - "why doesn't this string parse as XML?"

Alec Gorge · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-02 19:09:51Z

1

When you are fetching xml_string, I believe you need to set the user agent. You are not providing a user agent so the server serving the XML is choking.

Use this code to add a user agent to your request:

resp = http.post(path, query, {'User-Agent' => "Ruby"})

edited Dec 2, 2011 at 19:09

answered Dec 2, 2011 at 18:57

Alec Gorge

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1 Comment

Spencer Over a year ago

This is how I make the post. resp = http.post(path, query) review_response = resp.body

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