CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpxmlsimplexml
Dave Mont-Royal
Dave Mont-Royal

Reputation: 41

How to parse this specific XML?

This is what I've tried so far and it gives me a bunch of stuff I don't want (see bottom for browser output):

// transform to Simple XML
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($results);
// find category names
$xml = $xml->xpath('params/param/value/array/data/value/struct/member/value/string');

print_r($xml);

This is the XML, I need to get all the categoryName nodes:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<methodResponse>
  <params>
    <param>
      <value>
      <array><data>
  <value><struct>
  <member><name>categoryId</name><value><string>7</string></value></member>
  <member><name>parentId</name><value><string>0</string></value></member>
  <member><name>description</name><value><string>@MyCat000egory</string></value></member>
  <member><name>categoryDescription</name><value><string></string></value></member>
  <member><name>categoryName</name><value><string>@MyCat000egory</string></value></member>
  <member><name>htmlUrl</name><value><string>http://en.webacceleration.net/?cat=7</string></value></member>
  <member><name>rssUrl</name><value><string>http://en.webacceleration.net/?feed=rss2&amp;amp;cat=7</string></value></member>
</struct></value>
  <value><struct>
  <member><name>categoryId</name><value><string>6</string></value></member>
  <member><name>parentId</name><value><string>0</string></value></member>
  <member><name>description</name><value><string>this is the category</string></value></member>
  <member><name>categoryDescription</name><value><string></string></value></member>
  <member><name>categoryName</name><value><string>this is the category</string></value></member>
  <member><name>htmlUrl</name><value><string>http://en.webacceleration.net/?cat=6</string> </value></member>
  <member><name>rssUrl</name><value><string>http://en.webacceleration.net/?feed=rss2&amp;amp;cat=6</string></value></member>
</struct></value>
  <value><struct>
  <member><name>categoryId</name><value><string>1</string></value></member>
  <member><name>parentId</name><value><string>0</string></value></member>
  <member><name>description</name><value><string>Uncategorized</string></value></member>
  <member><name>categoryDescription</name><value><string></string></value></member>
  <member><name>categoryName</name><value><string>Uncategorized</string></value></member>
  <member><name>htmlUrl</name><value><string>http://en.webacceleration.net/?cat=1</string></value></member>
  <member><name>rssUrl</name><value><string>http://en.webacceleration.net/?feed=rss2&amp;amp;cat=1</string></value></member>
</struct></value>
</data></array>
      </value>
    </param>
  </params>
</methodResponse>

And this is the browser output:

Array ( [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => 7 ) [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => 0 ) [2] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => @MyCat000egory ) [3] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) [4] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => @MyCat000egory ) [5] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => http://en.webacceleration.net/?cat=7 ) [6] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => http://en.webacceleration.net/?feed=rss2&cat=7 ) [7] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => 6 ) [8] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => 0 ) [9] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => this is the category ) [10] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) [11] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => this is the category ) [12] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => http://en.webacceleration.net/?cat=6 ) [13] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => http://en.webacceleration.net/?feed=rss2&cat=6 ) [14] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => 1 ) [15] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => 0 ) [16] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => Uncategorized ) [17] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) [18] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => Uncategorized ) [19] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => http://en.webacceleration.net/?cat=1 ) [20] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => http://en.webacceleration.net/?feed=rss2&cat=1 ) )

Upvotes: 1

Views: 139

Answers (2)

Michael Berkowski
Michael Berkowski

Reputation: 270599

$categories = $xml->xpath('//name[text()="categoryName"]/../value/string');

Use text()="categoryName" to target the <name> and /../ to retrieve its sibling node <value>.

Full breakdown:

  • //name[text()="categoryName"] All <name> nodes having text value of "categoryName"
  • /../ Parent node of the previous match
  • /value/string <string> node that is a child of <value> of the parent matched by /../

.

   var_dump($categories);
    array(3) {
      [0]=>
      object(SimpleXMLElement)#5 (1) {
        [0]=>
        string(14) "@MyCat000egory"
      }
      [1]=>
      object(SimpleXMLElement)#6 (1) {
        [0]=>
        string(20) "this is the category"
      }
      [2]=>
      object(SimpleXMLElement)#7 (1) {
        [0]=>
        string(13) "Uncategorized"
      }
    }

Upvotes: 1

Dr.Molle
Dr.Molle

Reputation: 117314

Use instead of simply member this: member[name="categoryName"]

$xml = $xml->xpath('params/param/value/array/data/value/struct/member[name="categoryName"]/value/string');

Upvotes: 1

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