Parsing XML elements with dynamic namespace prefix in PHP

Question

I have the following XML ( you can say SOAP request ) :

<SOAPENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAPENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:NS="http://xyz.gov/headerschema" >
    <SOAPENV:Header>
        <NS:myHeader>
            <NS:SourceID>223423</NS:SourceID>
        </NS:myHeader>
    </SOAPENV:Header>
</SOAPENV:Envelope>

I use the following code and it works fine :

<?php 
$myRequest ='<SOAPENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAPENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:NS="http://xyz.gov/headerschema" >
   <SOAPENV:Header>
      <NS:myHeader>
         <NS:SourceID>223423</NS:SourceID>
      </NS:myHeader>
   </SOAPENV:Header>
   </SOAPENV:Envelope>';
$xml = simplexml_load_string($myRequest, NULL, NULL, "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/");
$namespaces = $xml->getNameSpaces(true);

$soapHeader = $xml->children($namespaces['SOAPENV'])->Header;
$myHeader = $soapHeader->children($namespaces['NS'])->myHeader;
echo (string)$myHeader->SourceID;
?>

The Problem

I know the prefix ( SOAPENV + NS ) , but the clients could change the prefix to whatever they want, so they may send me xml document that has ( MY-SOAPENV + MY-NS) prefixes.

My Question

How can I handle this since the namespace prefixes are not static , how can I parse it ?

Thanks

Namespaces are defined by uri and not by alias. I'm not sure about simplexml, but DomDocument can handle this just fine. — Ja͢ck
– Ja͢ck, Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 10:17
Yes, prefixes can be changed. And no, this is not a problem. Because the actual Namespace is defined by the URI, which does not change. — hakre
– hakre, Commented Jun 29, 2013 at 9:11

hakre · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-29 09:10:30Z

5

Here is the other way. We can dynamically parse the data as follows.

$myRequest ='<SOAPENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAPENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:NS="http://xyz.gov/headerschema" >
           <SOAPENV:Header>
              <NS:myHeader>
                 <NS:SourceID>223423</NS:SourceID>
              </NS:myHeader>
           </SOAPENV:Header>
           </SOAPENV:Envelope>';


$xml        = simplexml_load_string(
    $myRequest, NULL, NULL, "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
);
$namespaces = $xml->getNameSpaces(true);
$prefix     = array_keys($namespaces); // we getting all namespaces here. According 
                                       // to that we can find datas.
$soapHeader = $xml->children($namespaces[$prefix[0]])->Header;
$myHeader   = $soapHeader->children($namespaces[$prefix[1]])->myHeader;
echo (string)$myHeader->SourceID;

edited Jun 29, 2013 at 9:10

hakre

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answered Jun 26, 2013 at 11:49

Neil

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1 Comment

Abdullah Over a year ago

Thanks @Neil , I applied that and it works fine , I appreciate your help.

DaveRandom · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-26 10:18:45Z

You should use DOM - personally I believe this is true for the general case because "simple XML" is an oxymoron, but I know others disagree. It is certainly true when dealing with a complex document tree like SOAP.

DOM provides getElementsByTagNameNS() (and other relevant NS-targeting methods) which allow you to specifiy the namespace URI (i.e. the thing that should remain static and be known ahead of time) instead of being specific about the prefix.

$soapNsUri = 'http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/';
$myNsUri = 'http://xyz.gov/headerschema';

$doc = new DOMDocument;
$doc->loadXML($myRequest);

$header = $doc->getElementsByTagNameNS($soapNsUri, 'Header')->item(0);
$myHeader = $header->getElementsByTagNameNS($myNsUri, 'myHeader')->item(0);
$sourceID = $myHeader->getElementsByTagNameNS($myNsUri, 'SourceID')->item(0);

echo $sourceID->firstChild->data;

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