Accessing elements in Simplexml with complex structure - php

Question

I'm new to woking with XML with PHP. I have a fairly complex XML structure and am using simplexml in laravel and am having trouble accessing all the elements I need to get. I am able to loop through the large XML file but simpleXML is returning two objects per record and I only seem to be able to access the elements in 'header', the first object returned...
here is part of the xml object
SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[identifier] => RCM0635
[datestamp] => 2015-06-09
)
SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[lidoWrap] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[lido] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[lidoRecID] => RCM:1748
[descriptiveMetadata] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[objectClassificationWrap] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[objectWorkTypeWrap] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[objectWorkType] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[term] => musical instruments
)
)
[classificationWrap] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[classification] => Array
(
[0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[term] => Cornet
)
[1] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[conceptID] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[#attributes] => Array
(
[type] => SH_Class
)
)
)
)
)
)
With the code below I can get the elements in the header but I can't figure out how to get the other elements?
$streamer = \Prewk\XmlStringStreamer::createStringWalkerParser(public_path().'/xml/many_mimo_records.xml');
while ($node = $streamer->getNode()) {
$simpleXmlNode = simplexml_load_string($node);
echo (string)$simpleXmlNode->identifier;
echo (string)$simpleXmlNode->datestamp;
}
I'd be very grateful for any advice...

Answer 1

I'm not sure if I understand You but in major:
You act on while ($node = $streamer->getNode()) loop what means that after first iteration You'll get this object:
SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[identifier] => RCM0635
[datestamp] => 2015-06-09
)
so for the first time it's ok to read it like:
`
$simpleXmlNode = simplexml_load_string($node);
echo (string)$simpleXmlNode->identifier;
echo (string)$simpleXmlNode->datestamp;
`
but in the second iteration You have:
`
SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[lidoWrap] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[lido] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[lidoRecID] => RCM:1748
[descriptiveMetadata] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[objectClassificationWrap] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[objectWorkTypeWrap] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[objectWorkType] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[term] => musical instruments
)
)
[classificationWrap] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[classification] => Array
(
[0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[term] => Cornet
)
[1] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[conceptID] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[#attributes] => Array
(
[type] => SH_Class
)
)
)
)
)
)
`
so the code inside while is wrong.
i sugest to try something like this:
`
while ($node = $streamer->getNode()) {
$simpleXmlNode = simplexml_load_string($node);
if (!empty($simpleXmlNode->identifier))
echo (string)$simpleXmlNode->identifier;
if (!empty($simpleXmlNode->datestamp))
echo (string)$simpleXmlNode->datestamp;
if (!empty($simpleXmlNode->lidoWrap)) {
$lido = $simpleXmlNode->lidoWrap->lido;
echo (string)$lido->lidoRecID;
// and so on as the recursive XML node objects
}
}
`