PHP XML Parsing Fails

Question

I have a php script that reads RSS feed and displays the items on the page:

 <?php
    function getFeed($feed_url) {

         $content = file_get_contents($feed_url);
         $x = new SimpleXmlElement($content);
         $j=0;

         foreach($x->channel->item as $entry) {
              if ($i <5){
                   echo "<li>
                   <a href='$entry->link' title='$entry->title'>" .
                   $entry->title . "</a><br/>
                   <span style='color: 444444;'>".$entry->description."
                   </span>..<a href='$entry->link' title='$entry->title'>
                   <b>more</b></a>
                   </li>";      
              }$i +=1;
         }
    }
    getFeed("http://example.org/feed/");    

    ?>

It works well and displays the RSS item with the links in it. The issue is when the rss feed is down or becomes 0byte size file and it does not show anything. Is there a way to check if the file exists and not empty and make this script fail gracefully way before the server times out?

Luca Rainone · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-17 22:32:57Z

2

use curl function:

function getFeed($feed_url) {

    // GET request
    $handle = curl_init($feed_url);
    curl_setopt($handle,  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
    $response = curl_exec($handle);
    $httpCode = curl_getinfo($handle, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);

    if($httpCode != 200 || empty($response)) {
        echo "feed url not found or missed";
        exit;
    }
    curl_close($handle);

    // also catch error in xml
    try {
        $x = new SimpleXmlElement($response);
    catch (Exception $e){ 
         echo 'XML not valid'; 
         exit; 
    } 
    // rest of function
 }

edited Dec 17, 2012 at 22:32

answered Dec 17, 2012 at 22:27

Luca Rainone

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Comments

Diego Pino · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-17 22:34:49Z

1

On failure file_get_contents returns false, you can check if an error happened and exit.

$content = file_get_contents($feed_url);
if (content === false) return;
$x = new SimpleXmlElement($content);

answered Dec 17, 2012 at 22:34

Diego Pino

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Comments

Theolodis · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-17 22:21:45Z

0

You could check what you get in $content. Like if it is empty or doesn't start with a xml header you just stop.

answered Dec 17, 2012 at 22:21

Theolodis

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