Using PHP to Parse XML to get Attribute values?

Question

I am trying to parse an XML file using PHP in order to find an attribute value.

The XML appears as follows(example.xml):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" standalone="yes"?>
<xryfile XRYVersion="6.11.1.0">
<images>
<image type="PHYSICAL" id="0" version="6.11.1">
  <views>
    <view type="location_history_view">
      <nodes>
        <node>
          <properties>
            <property type="application">Facebook Messenger</property>
            <property type="longitude">-1.000000</property>
            <property type="latitude">1.000000</property>
          </properties>
        </node>
      </nodes>
    </view>
  </views>
</image>
</images>
</xryfile>

I wish to extract the values of the "property" nodes but I am unsure of the syntax to use to extract this information.

I have tried the following code:

<?php

$xml = simplexml_load_file('example.xml');



foreach($xml->property[0]->attributes() as $a) {
echo $a;
}
?>

I can work out how to extract a node easily if the node was say:

<property>Facebook Messenger</property>

However I am having trouble working out how to extract attribute values when it appears like this:

<property type="application">Facebook Messenger</property>

I would very much appreciate some help with the problem as I have been stuck for a while now.

Thanks in advance :)

NaijaProgrammer · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-23 15:38:05Z

3

Is there a particular reason you must use SimpleXML? if none, you could try with DOMDocument instead. Code is below:

$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
$dom->load('example.xml');

$properties = $dom->getElementsByTagName('property');
foreach($properties AS $property)
{
    $value = $property->nodeValue;
    $type = $property->getAttribute('type');
    echo '<div>Node Information/Value :'. $value. '<br/>'. 'Node attribute:'. $type. '</div>';
}

edited Mar 23, 2015 at 15:38

answered Mar 23, 2015 at 14:41

NaijaProgrammer

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5 Comments

PShickle Over a year ago

Appreciate your response. Works perfectly for attributes. However If I wanted to extract the node value (ie "Facebook Messenger") could I use: $type = $property->getAttribute('type=[application]'); ?

NaijaProgrammer Over a year ago

Nope. You'd use: $property->nodeValue; And if this solves your problem, try to mark it as the accepted answer, so that others can benefit from it when faced with similar issues.

PShickle Over a year ago

Apologies. I may have been unclear with my question. I wish to extract the information for example Facebook Messenger. from the node: <property type="application">Facebook Messenger</property>As oppose to the "application" value

NaijaProgrammer Over a year ago

I've updated my answer to take that into account. Hope that helps.

ThW Over a year ago

If you're using DOM, read about DOMXPath::evaluate(). It allows you to use XPath expressions to extract nodes and values.

NaijaProgrammer · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-23 14:19:50Z

2

Try this:

foreach($xml->property AS $property) {
   if(isset($property['type'])){
     $a = $property['type'];
     echo $a;
   }
}

answered Mar 23, 2015 at 14:19

NaijaProgrammer

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1 Comment

PShickle Over a year ago

Thanks for the reply, It is not returning any errors which is a plus, but also not echoing the values.

n-dru · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-23 14:54:06Z

2

This echoes all 3 attributes:

foreach($xml->images->image->views->view->nodes->node->properties->property as $obj){
    echo $obj->attributes()->type."<br/>";
}

Result:

application
longitude
latitude

answered Mar 23, 2015 at 14:54

n-dru

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2 Comments

NaijaProgrammer Over a year ago

Never knew that @n-dru. So, plus 1 for you. Although, I must note that the chain is kinda long. Reason I prefer the DOM approach which gives direct access, rather than sequential access.

n-dru Over a year ago

Thanks, I appreciate it. It is just one of the ways, fact is that it is only for this specific structure.

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