Extracting multiple XML data using PHP

Question

I need to read the following XML data:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<client xmlns="http://www.blinksale.com/api" uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/clients/17419" created_at="2014-03-15T17:00:20Z" updated_at="2014-10-06T13:56:54Z">
  <name>Widgets Supply</name>
  <address1>Protea House</address1>
  <address2>50 Gooseberry Street</address2>
  <city>Honeydew</city>
  <state>GT</state>
  <zip>2040</zip>
  <country>ZA</country>
  <url>http://www.domain.com</url>
  <phone></phone>
  <fax></fax>
  <token>512de253e5b</token>
  <people uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/clients/17419/people">
    <person uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/clients/17419/people/17420">
      <first_name>Alminda</first_name>
      <last_name>Smith</last_name>
      <email>almindas@domain.com</email>
    </person>
    <person uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/clients/3347419/people/17421">
      <first_name>Liza</first_name>
      <last_name>Buchler</last_name>
      <email>lizab@domain.com</email>
    </person>
  </people>
  <invoices uri="">
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1223295"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1228974"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1230066"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1241476"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1252582"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1263211"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1273335"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1282340"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1284381"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1287383"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1295650"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1305739"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1306958"/>
    <invoice uri="https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1315324"/>
  </invoices>
</client>

I can read the data with the following code, but it will not loop through the person and invoice data.

<?php 
$myclient=simplexml_load_file("client.xml") or die("Error: Cannot open client.xml");

echo "Name: " . $myclient->name[0] . "<br>";
echo "Address 1: " . $myclient->address1[0] . "<br>";
echo "Address 2: " . $myclient->address2[0] . "<br>";

echo "City: " . $myclient->city[0] . "<br>";
echo "State: " . $myclient->state[0] . "<br>";
echo "Postal Code: " . $myclient->zip[0] . "<br>";
echo "Country: " . $myclient->country[0] . "<br>";
echo "URL: " . $myclient->url[0] . "<br>";
echo "Phone: " . $myclient->phone[0] . "<br>";
echo "Fax: " . $myclient->fax[0] . "<br>";
echo "<br>";
echo "Token: " . $myclient->token[0] . "<br>";
echo "<br>";

foreach($myclient->people as $clientinfo) { 

  $uri2         = $clientinfo->person['uri']; 
  echo "URI: $uri2 <br>";

  $first_name  = $clientinfo->person->first_name; 
  $last_name   = $clientinfo->person->last_name; 
  $email       = $clientinfo->person->email; 
  echo "First Name: $first_name <br>";
  echo "Surname:    $last_name <br>";
  echo "Email:      $email <br>";

}
echo "<br>";



foreach($myclient->invoices as $invoiceinfo) { 

  $uri3         = $invoiceinfo->invoice['uri']; 
  echo "URI: $uri3 <br>";

}
echo "End<br>";
?>

This is the answer I get:

Name: Widgets Supply
Address 1: Protea House
Address 2: 50 Gooseberry Street
City: Honeydew
State: GT
Postal Code: 2040
Country: ZA
URL: http://www.domain.com
Phone: 
Fax: 

Token: 512de253e5b

URI: https://clientname.blinksale.com/clients/17419/people/17420 
First Name: Alminda 
Surname: Smith 
Email: almindas@domain.com 

**Missing data here**

URI: https://clientname.blinksale.com/invoices/1223295 

**Missing data here**

End

I think once we have an answer it will be a useful answer for people to read XML data in various formats.

Answer 1

You are looping through the people elements, and because there's only one people element you also see only one result. The reason you do get person data is because with $clientinfo->person you access the first person element inside the people element.

Try foreach($myclient->people->person as $clientinfo) to loop through the person elements instead and then you can use $clientinfo->first_name to access your person data. The same goes for invoices, use foreach($myclient->invoices->invoice as $invoiceinfo) and then $invoiceinfo['uri'].

<?php 
$myclient=simplexml_load_file("client.xml") or die("Error: Cannot open client.xml");

echo "Name: " . $myclient->name[0] . "<br>";
echo "Address 1: " . $myclient->address1[0] . "<br>";
echo "Address 2: " . $myclient->address2[0] . "<br>";

echo "City: " . $myclient->city[0] . "<br>";
echo "State: " . $myclient->state[0] . "<br>";
echo "Postal Code: " . $myclient->zip[0] . "<br>";
echo "Country: " . $myclient->country[0] . "<br>";
echo "URL: " . $myclient->url[0] . "<br>";
echo "Phone: " . $myclient->phone[0] . "<br>";
echo "Fax: " . $myclient->fax[0] . "<br>";
echo "<br>";
echo "Token: " . $myclient->token[0] . "<br>";
echo "<br>";

foreach($myclient->people->person as $clientinfo) { 

  $uri2         = $clientinfo['uri']; 
  echo "URI: $uri2 <br>";

  $first_name  = $clientinfo->first_name; 
  $last_name   = $clientinfo->last_name; 
  $email       = $clientinfo->email; 
  echo "First Name: $first_name <br>";
  echo "Surname:    $last_name <br>";
  echo "Email:      $email <br>";

}
echo "<br>";



foreach($myclient->invoices->invoice as $invoiceinfo) { 

  $uri3         = $invoiceinfo['uri']; 
  echo "URI: $uri3 <br>";

}
echo "End<br>";
?>

Answer 2

$clients = $myclient->people->person;

foreach($clients as $client) {
    echo $client->first_name.'\n';  
}

$invoices = $myclient->invoices->invoice;

foreach($invoices as $invoice) {
     echo $invoice['uri'].'\n';     
}