In this example we are going to learn how to parse xml (Extensible Markup Language) with PHP.\u00a0For this example we will use:<\/p>\n
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XML(Extensible Markup Language) is a markup language like html. It is a syntax for creating data representation languages. XML was designed to store and transport data, It was also designed to be human and machine readable.
\nXML can be divided into two levels. On the first level XML defines a strict but simple syntax. When this syntax is followed, the document is a well formed XML document. On the second level XML provides a way of placing further restrictions on what can appear in a document. This is done by associating a DTD(Document Type Definition) with an XML document. A DTD is simply a list of things allowed to appear in the XML document.
\nIf you are familiar with HTML, then you already have a basic idea of XML. An HTML document is not an XML document since it does not follow all the strict XML syntax rules.<\/p>\n
parse.xml<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n This is a simple XML file that stores data about the games on a server.\u00a0The first line identifies this document as an XML file. On this line we can also specify the character encoding used. The document is made up of elements, attributes and textual content. An element starts with a tag, such as To parse XML we are going to be using the SimpleXML parser. SimpleXML is a PHP extension that easily manipulates and get XML data. It turns an XML document into a data structure you can iterate through like a collection of arrays and objects.<\/p>\n fromstring.php<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In line 22 we store our XML formated string in a variable named fromfile.php<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In line 22 we call function node.php<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Lets looks at another example. node2.php<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In this script we loop through the nodes(line 23 to 27)<\/p>\n In this example we have learnt about XML. We also learnt how to parse XML from a file and string in PHP.<\/p>\n<?xml version=\"1.0\" ?>\r\n<games>\r\n<game>\r\n<name>Shadow Clan <\/name>\r\n<version>1<\/version>\r\n<multiplayer>true<\/multiplayer>\r\n<size w=\"300\" h=\"300\"\/>\r\n<description>The Shadow Clan is a group of elite fighters. There mission is simple protect the world from Dark shadow clan <\/description>\r\n<stage>2<\/stage>\r\n<\/game>\r\n\r\n<game>\r\n<name>Zombie Escape <\/name>\r\n<version>3.2<\/version>\r\n<multiplayer>false<\/multiplayer>\r\n<size w=\"800\" h=\"300\"\/>\r\n<description>Lagos as been invaded by zombies, lead jane out of the danger zone <\/description>\r\n<stage>2<\/stage>\r\n<\/game>\r\n<game>\r\n<name>Zombie Escape 3 <\/name>\r\n<version>1.0.2<\/version>\r\n<multiplayer>false<\/multiplayer>\r\n<size w=\"800\" h=\"300\"\/>\r\n<description>Lagos as been invaded by zombies, lead jane out of the danger zone <\/description>\r\n<stage>2<\/stage>\r\n<\/game>\r\n<\/games>\r\n<\/pre>\n
<game><\/code> and ends with a matching <\/game><\/code> and the content is between the tags, which can consist of text and nested elements.
\nUnlike HTML the author of an XML document gets to choose the tags names and attribute names.\u00a0Below are some rules for creating XML documents<\/p>\n\n
<Title><\/code> is not the same as<title><\/code> .
\nAll XML elements must have closing tags.<\/li>\n<game><\/code> tag above serves as our root element)<\/li>\n1.1 Parsing XML from a string<\/h2>\n
<!DOCTYPE html> \r\n<html lang=en>\r\n\t<head>\r\n\t<style>\r\n\thtml, body{\r\n\twidth:100%;\r\n\theight:100%;\r\n\tmargin:0%;\r\n\tfont-family:\"helvetica\",\"verdana\",\"calibri\", \"san serif\";\r\n\toverflow:hidden;\r\n\tpadding:0%;\r\n\tborder:0%;\r\n\t}\r\n\t \r\n\t<\/style>\r\n\t \t\t<meta charset=\"utf-8\" \/>\r\n\t\t<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no, target-densitydpi=device-dpi\"\/>\r\n\t<title>Php Parser Example<\/title>\r\n\t<\/head>\r\n\t<body>\r\n<?php\r\n$par=\"<?xml version='1.0' ?>\r\n<game>\r\n<name>Shadow Clan<\/name>\r\n<version>1<\/version>\r\n<multiplayer>true<\/multiplayer>\r\n<size w='300' h='300'\/>\r\n<description>The Shadow Clan is a group of elite fighters. There mission is simple protect the world from Dark shadow clan <\/description>\r\n<stage>2<\/stage>\r\n<\/game>\";\r\n$xml=simplexml_load_string($par);\r\nif ($xml === false) {\r\necho \"Failed loading XML: \";\r\nforeach(libxml_get_errors() as $error) {\r\necho \"<br>\", $error->message;\r\n}\r\n} \r\nelse{\r\nprint_r($xml);\r\n\r\n}\r\n?>\r\n<\/body>\r\n<\/html>\r\n<\/pre>\n$par<\/code>. In line 31 we call the simplexml_load_string($par);<\/code> supplying our XML formatted string as an argument. In line 32 we check if our function returned successfully, if it did we use PHP print_r<\/code> to print out our result. If an error occurred we print out the error.<\/p>\n1.2 Reading XML from a file<\/h2>\n
<!DOCTYPE html> \r\n<html lang=en>\r\n\t<head>\r\n\t<style>\r\n\thtml, body{\r\n\twidth:100%;\r\n\theight:100%;\r\n\tmargin:0%;\r\n\tfont-family:\"helvetica\",\"verdana\",\"calibri\", \"san serif\";\r\n\toverflow:hidden;\r\n\tpadding:0%;\r\n\tborder:0%;\r\n\t}\r\n\t \r\n\t<\/style>\r\n\t \t\t<meta charset=\"utf-8\" \/>\r\n\t\t<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no, target-densitydpi=device-dpi\"\/>\r\n\t<title>Php Parser Example<\/title>\r\n\t<\/head>\r\n\t<body>\r\n<?php\r\n$xml=simplexml_load_file(\"parse.xml\")or die(\"An Error Occurred\");\r\nprint_r($xml);\r\n?>\r\n<\/body>\r\n<\/html>\r\n<\/pre>\nsimplexml_load_file(\"parse.xml\")<\/code> to parse our XML file supplying the name of the file to parse as an argument.<\/p>\n1.3 Getting Node Values<\/h2>\n
<!DOCTYPE html> \r\n<html lang=en>\r\n\t<head>\r\n\t<style>\r\n\thtml, body{\r\n\twidth:100%;\r\n\theight:100%;\r\n\tmargin:0%;\r\n\tfont-family:\"helvetica\",\"verdana\",\"calibri\", \"san serif\";\r\n\toverflow:hidden;\r\n\tpadding:0%;\r\n\tborder:0%;\r\n\t}\r\n\t \r\n\t<\/style>\r\n\t \t\t<meta charset=\"utf-8\" \/>\r\n\t\t<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no, target-densitydpi=device-dpi\"\/>\r\n\t<title>Php Parser Example<\/title>\r\n\t<\/head>\r\n\t<body>\r\n<?php\r\n$par=\"<?xml version='1.0' ?>\r\n<game>\r\n<name>Shadow Clan<\/name>\r\n<version>1<\/version>\r\n<multiplayer>true<\/multiplayer>\r\n<size w='300' h='300'\/>\r\n<description>The Shadow Clan is a group of elite fighters. There mission is simple protect the world from Dark shadow clan <\/description>\r\n<stage>2<\/stage><\/game>\";\r\n$xml=simplexml_load_string($par) or die(\"Error Occurred\");\r\necho \"The name of the game is \". $xml->name.\"<br><br>\";\r\necho \"Game Description \" . $xml->description. \"<br><br>\";\r\necho \"The game version is \".$xml->version.\"<br><br>\"\r\n?>\r\n<\/body>\r\n<\/html>\r\n<\/pre>\n
\nnode1.php<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<!DOCTYPE html> \r\n<html lang=en>\r\n\t<head>\r\n\t<style>\r\n\thtml, body{\r\n\twidth:100%;\r\n\theight:100%;\r\n\tmargin:0%;\r\n\tfont-family:\"helvetica\",\"verdana\",\"calibri\", \"san serif\";\r\n\toverflow:hidden;\r\n\tpadding:0%;\r\n\tborder:0%;\r\n\t}\r\n\t \r\n\t<\/style>\r\n\t \t\t<meta charset=\"utf-8\" \/>\r\n\t\t<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no, target-densitydpi=device-dpi\"\/>\r\n\t<title>Php Parser Example<\/title>\r\n\t<\/head>\r\n\t<body>\r\n<?php\r\n$par=\"<?xml version='1.0' ?>\r\n<games>\r\n<game>\r\n<name>Shadow Clan<\/name>\r\n<version>1<\/version>\r\n<multiplayer>true<\/multiplayer>\r\n<size w='300' h='300'\/>\r\n<description>The Shadow Clan is a group of elite fighters. There mission is simple protect the world from Dark shadow clan <\/description>\r\n<stage>2<\/stage><\/game> <game>\r\n<name>Zombie Escape <\/name>\r\n<version>3.2<\/version>\r\n<multiplayer>false<\/multiplayer>\r\n<size w='800' h='300'\/>\r\n<description>Lagos as been invaded by zombies, lead jane out of the danger zone <\/description>\r\n<stage>2<\/stage>\r\n<\/game>\r\n<game>\r\n<name>Zombie Escape 3 <\/name>\r\n<version>1.0.2<\/version>\r\n<multiplayer>false<\/multiplayer>\r\n<size w='800' h='300'\/>\r\n<description>Lagos as been invaded by zombies, lead jane out of the danger zone <\/description>\r\n<stage>2<\/stage>\r\n<\/game><\/games>\";\r\n$xml=simplexml_load_string($par) or die(\"Error Occurred\");\r\necho \"The name of the game is \". $xml->game[1]->name.\"<br><br>\";\r\necho \"Game Description \" . $xml->game[1]->description. \"<br><br>\";\r\necho \"The game version is \".$xml->game[1]->version.\"<br><br>\";\r\n\r\necho \"The name of the game is \". $xml->game[2]->name.\"<br><br>\";\r\necho \"Game Description \" . $xml->game[2]->description. \"<br><br>\";\r\necho \"The game version is \".$xml->game[2]->version.\"<br><br>\";\r\n?>\r\n<\/body>\r\n<\/html>\r\n<\/pre>\n1.4 Getting The Node Value With A Loop<\/h2>\n
<!DOCTYPE html> \r\n<html lang=en>\r\n\t<head>\r\n\t<style>\r\n\thtml, body{\r\n\twidth:100%;\r\n\theight:100%;\r\n\tmargin:0%;\r\n\tfont-family:\"helvetica\",\"verdana\",\"calibri\", \"san serif\";\r\n\toverflow:hidden;\r\n\tpadding:0%;\r\n\tborder:0%;\r\n\t}\r\n\t \r\n\t<\/style>\r\n\t \t\t<meta charset=\"utf-8\" \/>\r\n\t\t<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no, target-densitydpi=device-dpi\"\/>\r\n\t<title>Php Parser Example<\/title>\r\n\t<\/head>\r\n\t<body>\r\n<?php\r\n$xml=simplexml_load_file(\"parse.xml\") or die(\"Error Occurred\");\r\nforeach($xml->children() as $game) {\r\necho \"The name of the game is \". $game->name.\"<br><br>\";\r\necho \"Game Description \" . $game->description. \"<br><br>\";\r\necho \"The game version is \".$game->version.\"<br><br>\";\r\n}\r\n?>\r\n<\/body>\r\n<\/html>\r\n<\/pre>\n2 Summary<\/h2>\n
3. Download the source code<\/h2>\n