PHP XML DomDocument values

Question

I'm getting some data through an API and it's returning XML in the shape of:

<SUBSCRIBER_ROW>
<SUBSCRIBER>
    <ACCOUNT_NUMBER Value="0123456789123"/>
    <FIRST_NAME Value="fakeFirstName         "/>
    <INITIAL Value="w "/>
    <SURNAME Value="fakeLastName        "/>
    <TELEPHONE_NUMBER Value="5551234"/>
    <TELEPHONE_AREA Value="403"/>

The code I have to pull out the data is as follows:

   protected function par_getSubscriber($webCBSXML, $isJSON = false){
  ////parse XML
    $msg = 'WebCBS ERR: ';
    $dom = new DOMDocument();
    if(@$dom->loadXML($webCBSXML)) {
        $errors = $dom->getElementsByTagName('Error');
        if($parsedData = self::checkError($dom)) {
            $parsedData = self::formatOutput($parsedData, $isJSON, true);
            return $parsedData;
        } else {
            $subscriber['account_number']      = $dom->getElementsByTagName('account_number')->getAttribute('Value');
            $subscriber['first_name']          = $dom->getElementsByTagName('first_name')->getAttribute('Value');
            $subscriber['surname']             = $dom->getElementsByTagName('surname')->getAttribute('Value');
            $subscriber['telephone_number']    = $dom->getElementsByTagName('telephone_number')->getAttribute('Value');

However, the whole script dies right after this line:

$subscriber['account_number']      = $dom->getElementsByTagName('account_number')->getAttribute('Value');

I don't have much experience dealing with DOM documents and since it's creating an object out of the XML I'm unable to use var_dump/print_r to see the structure of it!

Don't forget that XML element names are case-sensitive.

salathe
– salathe

2013-01-07 23:51:34 +00:00
Commented Jan 7, 2013 at 23:51 — salathe
– salathe, Commented Jan 7, 2013 at 23:51

hek2mgl · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-08 01:45:57Z

1

Although I would suggest to use XPath to extract the information you need, it seems that you just misunderstood the return value of getElementsByTagName(). It returns a DOMNodeList not a single node. Also you have to uppercase the node names as @salathe mentioned. Change the code to something like :

$subscriber['account_number'] =
    $dom->getElementsByTagName('ACCOUNT_NUMBER')->item(0)->getAttribute('Value');

Also you should check that the nodes a really present in the XML. You can write the checks in PHP or you can use a schema language like XSD.

edited Jan 8, 2013 at 1:45

answered Jan 7, 2013 at 23:41

hek2mgl

159k31 gold badges263 silver badges280 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

5 Comments

Brad Over a year ago

Even when I use:` $subscriber['account_number'] = $dom->getElementsByTagName('account_number')->item(0)->getAttribute('Value');` the code is dying right after that line. If I echo before and after that line the line before echo's, the line after does not.

hek2mgl Over a year ago

What does the error log say? Can you ini_set('display_errors', 1); just before the line?

Brad Over a year ago

I love you for that line. I couldn't get errors to display before!

Fatal error: Call to a member function getAttribute() on a non-object in /home/bkilshaw/public_html/webcbs/Class-WebCBS.php on line 1196

hek2mgl Over a year ago

Hehe.. Don't forget to disable it for production. Instead of using ini_get() in the code directly you should consider to set it in the php.ini. Disabled on production servers, may be enabled on development servers. If using display_errors wont fit because it breaks something (maybe JSON responses etc) then don't forget that you have a log file! ;)

Brad Over a year ago

The comment on my original question, mixed with your reply, got me the answer. The XML is case sensitive so `$subscriber['account_number'] = $dom->getElementsByTagName('ACCOUNT_NUMBER')->item(0)->getAttribute('Value'); worked great!

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP XML DomDocument values

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related