Troubles parsing XML object in PHP (laravel 5.8) - php

Question

I'm having troubles parsing an XML object in PHP. I'm using Laravel 5.8
Here is one of my tries:
$xml = new \SimpleXMLElement($formatted, LIBXML_BIGLINES);
var_dump($xml->children('soapenv', true)->Envalop->Body->children('ns3', true)->getAddressBookResponse->addressBook[0]->businessUnit);
And I'm getting the following error:
Call to a member function children() on null
I have tried different variations of creating and accessing the SimpleXMLElement but always with the same result. I'm getting back an empty object of typeSimpleXMLElement
Here is a sample XML that I'm using as input (coming from SOAP API call):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<soapenv:Body>
<ns3:getAddressBookResponse xmlns:ns2="http://oracle.e1.bssv.JPRCUST0/"
xmlns:ns3="http://oracle.e1.bssv.JPR01000/">
<e1MessageList>
<e1Messages>
<message>Description: All records for the query have not been returned.
</message>
</e1Messages>
</e1MessageList>
<addressBook>
<businessUnit>123456</businessUnit>
<categoryCodesAddressBook>
<categoryCode001>XXX</categoryCode001>
<categoryCode002>XXX</categoryCode002>
</categoryCodesAddressBook>
<description1>MOHAMEDHASSANALI</description1>
</addressBook>
<addressBook>
<businessUnit>789789</businessUnit>
<categoryCodesAddressBook>
<categoryCode001>YYY</categoryCode001>
<categoryCode002>YYY</categoryCode002>
</categoryCodesAddressBook>
<description1>ALIHASSANAHMED</description1>
</addressBook>
</ns3:getAddressBookResponse>
</soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

Answer 1

That is not just XML, but SOAP. I suggest using a SOAP library (like ext/soap).
It's Envelope not Envalop. And this is the element in you $xml variable.
If you want to treat it as just XML, do not rely on the namespaces prefixes but the actual namespace URIs (the values of the xmlns attributes). Prefixes can change. A prefix like ns3 is auto generated by a SOAP library, just adding/removing an element with another namespace could change it. So define constants or variables for the XMLNS values and use them.
const XMLNS_SOAP = 'http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/';
const XMLNS_ADDRESSES = 'http://oracle.e1.bssv.JPR01000/';
$envelope = new \SimpleXMLElement($formatted, LIBXML_BIGLINES);
var_dump(
$envelope->children(XMLNS_SOAP)->Body->children(XMLNS_ADDRESSES)->getAddressBookResponse->children('')->addressBook[0]->businessUnit
);
Xpath expressions (SimpleXMLElement::xpath()) allow for conditional fetching. This avoids problems if an element is missing, but you will have to register your own prefixes for the namespaces.
const XMLNS_SOAP = 'http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/';
const XMLNS_ADDRESSES = 'http://oracle.e1.bssv.JPR01000/';
$envelope = new \SimpleXMLElement($formatted, LIBXML_BIGLINES);
$envelope->registerXpathNamespace('s', XMLNS_SOAP);
$envelope->registerXpathNamespace('a', XMLNS_ADDRESSES);
var_dump(
$envelope->xpath('(s:Body/a:getAddressBookResponse/addressBook)[1]/businessUnit')
);