Parsing Youtube Annotations XML with PHP - php

Question

While parsing XML with php is not exactly a new topic, I have had problems ensuring I parse Annotations from Youtube due to the varying information coming back.
I have spent quite a lot of time reading up about iterating over the attributes (which I think would be the "safe way") but, unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful with my attempts.
Iterating:
$data = file_get_contents("https://www.youtube.com/annotations_invideo?video_id=GUmcQuJVCrI");
$xml = simplexml_load_string($data);
foreach($xml->children() as $child) {
$role = $child->attributes();
foreach($child as $key => $value) {
if($role == "annotation")
echo "Role:".$role. "<br />";
echo("[".$key ."] ".$value . "<br />");
}
}
Another way I have tried to parse the information is by actually following the paths of the nested elements for example:
$data = file_get_contents("https://www.youtube.com/annotations_invideo?video_id=tFYaQwYbvxg");
$xml = simplexml_load_string($data);
$xml = $xml->annotations[0];
Then with a foreach loop:
foreach($xml->annotation as $annotation) {
I have been able to retrieve some of the information I require
$startX = ($annotation->segment->movingRegion->rectRegion[0]->attributes()->x[0]);
$endX = ($annotation->segment->movingRegion->rectRegion[1]->attributes()->x[0]);
$startY = ($annotation->segment->movingRegion->rectRegion[0]->attributes()->y[0]);
$endY = ($annotation->segment->movingRegion->rectRegion[1]->attributes()->y[0]);
$startW = ($annotation->segment->movingRegion->rectRegion[0]->attributes()->w[0]);
$endW = ($annotation->segment->movingRegion->rectRegion[1]->attributes()->w[0]);
$startH = ($annotation->segment->movingRegion->rectRegion[0]->attributes()->h[0]);
$endH = ($annotation->segment->movingRegion->rectRegion[1]->attributes()->h[0]);
$startT = ($annotation->segment->movingRegion->rectRegion[0]->attributes()->t[0]);
$endT = ($annotation->segment->movingRegion->rectRegion[1]->attributes()->t[0]);
I am well aware this is very messy and it fails if the data is anyway different or if there is an annotation type that I didnt know about.
I have been able to stop it failing for example type "text" annotations by ignoring some annotation types like so...
$type = $annotation->attributes()->type;
if (($type !="promotion") &&($type !="branding") &&($type !="card")&&($type !="drawer"))
but this is not really what I want to do in the long run, i really need to be able to parse all types even if Youtube had a new type tomorrow!
Summary:
I really need a safe, reliable way to be able to retrieve all annotations from any Youtube video and store all the information about each one such as the position X and Y, the start time and end time, the text if exists, the link if exists.
I also need the styling if exists.
If exists is the main problem here I think!
I have it working well for some annotations but not all....
I would appreciate if someone could advise me how to better format this so it is reliable and efficient.
Thanks for your time.