PHP simplexml_load_string not working

Question

I have a XML String retrieved from a XML file. I can't access the file directly using simplexml_load_file(). Reason is I have to get this through Amazon S3 getObject(). When I echo the string I can see the out put as a real XML file. But when I try to load it to a XML object using bellow code it doesn't work. The variable $s3Data exactly contain the XML content in the given link.

$xml = simplexml_load_string($s3Data);

I need your help to figure this out. The XML string I am getting is available here.

http://mediatheques-aphp.bibliomedias.net/12.xml

EDIT

I created the XML string and tested. Now I get following errors. How can I fix these.

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: Entity: line 12: parser error : Input is not proper UTF-8, indicate encoding ! Bytes: 0xEF 0x76 0x65 0x3C in C:\Program Files\Zend\Apache2\htdocs\voxmedia\application\modules\import\controllers\NaiveController.php on line 1458

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: 2009 naïve in C:\Program Files\Zend\Apache2\htdocs\voxmedia\application\modules\import\controllers\NaiveController.php on line 1458

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: ^ in C:\Program Files\Zend\Apache2\htdocs\voxmedia\application\modules\import\controllers\NaiveController.php on line 1458

OK Now I feel the issue is with sort of string encoding or something. Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks.

it "doesnt work" is never enough information. at least provide the error message. — Gordon
– Gordon, Commented Feb 15, 2012 at 8:52
Hi. There is no error message. My code work with other XML String. Please don't think about a file. Just think that you have a php string variable which has the content of given URL. $s3Data is a string variable which contains things in the given XML file. Don't think about getObject() etc... — Prasad Rajapaksha
– Prasad Rajapaksha, Commented Feb 15, 2012 at 9:03
It's looks like possible duplicate. But their answers `utf8_encode() didn't work for me. I've put my own answer with the way I fixed it. Thanks Gordon for your help anyway. — Prasad Rajapaksha
– Prasad Rajapaksha, Commented Feb 15, 2012 at 10:32

vitaly goji · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-19 23:25:33Z

5

simplexml_load_string and simplexml_load_file are buggy and don't work well on XML with a complex markup. I tried both functions to parse some VALID XML SOAP responses and could not even get an error message. I had to use DOMDocument instead (worked like a charm).

Here is how we suppose to check simplexml for errors (if you are lucky to see errors, not just "false" returned from function)

libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
$xml=simplexml_load_string($myXMLData); //or simplexml_load_file

foreach( libxml_get_errors() as $error ) {

    print_r($error);

}

edited Dec 19, 2014 at 23:25

answered Dec 19, 2014 at 22:38

vitaly goji

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1 Comment

Luís Cruz Over a year ago

Oh goodness gracious! I've been trying for hours to load the result of a SOAP request string with simplexml_load_string and it insisted on just not working (without any error). Thanks for the DOMDocument reference, made my day!

Prasad Rajapaksha · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-15 10:23:17Z

I could find an answer to my question with a small workaround. simplexml_load_string() continuously displayed encoding errors. So I used simplexml_load_file() as bellow. I've saved the file in to local location and then load with simplexml_load_file().

$tempLocalPath = "temp/data.xml";
file_put_contents($tempLocalPath, $s3Data);
$xml = simplexml_load_file($tempLocalPath);

However still I don't understan why simplexml_load_string() couldn't parse the same thing.

Kadir Güler · Accepted Answer · 2023-02-15 13:32:57Z

1

if your xml is soap request. You can try this

$testxml= htmlentities(strval($xml));

edited Feb 15, 2023 at 13:32

answered Feb 15, 2023 at 13:32

Kadir Güler

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Comments

Bob Fanger · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-15 09:16:46Z

-1

When you echo a variable which is actually an object its __toString() method is called to convert the object to a string but when you pass the object to function the object issn't converted.

Use:

$xml = simplexml_load_string( (string)$s3Data);

To cast the $s3Data object to a string.

PS: Use var_dump($s3Data) and var_dump($xml) to debug the contents of a variable instead of echo.

edited Feb 15, 2012 at 9:16

answered Feb 15, 2012 at 8:50

Bob Fanger

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3 Comments

Prasad Rajapaksha Over a year ago

No casting didn't work. I tried that. My code work with other XML String. Please don't think about a file. Just think that you have a php string variable which has the content of given file.

Bob Fanger Over a year ago

Strange using $xml = simplexml_load_string(file_get_contents('mediatheques-aphp.bibliomedias.net/12.xml')); works on my machine, no xml errors whatsoever.

Gordon Over a year ago

Quoting the OP: I have to get this through Amazon S3 getObject().

xskxzr · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-04 06:18:22Z

-1

You should try this:

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
simplexml_load_string($result);

edited Mar 4, 2018 at 6:18

xskxzr

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answered Jan 12, 2018 at 12:18

Visakh B Sujathan

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1 Comment

Harijs Krūtainis Over a year ago

This is the full version of what he's doing and it helps in no way. simplexml_load_string is bugged.

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