PHP simplexml_load_string() elements within elements - php

Question

I'm trying to parse some XML data using the php function simplexml_load_string() however it doesn't seem to work on elements where there is text and then further elements. Here is a sample data:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<KPPRINT>
<CURRENTDATE>31/01/2015</CURRENTDATE>
<CURRENTTIME>21:43</CURRENTTIME>
<HEADER>
<ORDERNUMBER>CHECK NO: 69</ORDERNUMBER>
<CHECKNUMBER>ORDER NO: 16</CHECKNUMBER>
<REFTEXT>Party table</REFTEXT>
<REFTEXT>LOCATION 4</REFTEXT>
</HEADER>
<ITEM>VK Ice<QTY>1</QTY><PRICE>£0.03</PRICE><RECORD>57</RECORD><DEPT number="1" name="Wet Sales"/><GROUP number="5" name="FABs"/><CAT number="1" name="CATEGORY 1"/></ITEM>
<ITEM>Bramble<QTY>1</QTY><PRICE>£0.45</PRICE><RECORD>241</RECORD><DEPT number="1" name="Wet Sales"/><GROUP number="10" name="Cocktails"/><CAT number="1" name="CATEGORY 1"/></ITEM>
<ITEM>Gran Seleccion Rioja<QTY>1</QTY><PRICE>£19.95</PRICE><RECORD>225</RECORD><DEPT number="1" name="Wet Sales"/><GROUP number="9" name="Wines & Champagnes"/><CAT number="1" name="CATEGORY 1"/></ITEM>
<TRAILER>
<CLERK>Tom</CLERK>
<MACHINE>S000-T1</MACHINE>
<TIME>21:43</TIME>
<CONSEC>000023</CONSEC>
</TRAILER>
</KPPRINT>
This is the output I get:
Array
(
[CURRENTDATE] => 31/01/2015
[CURRENTTIME] => 21:43
[HEADER] => Array
(
[ORDERNUMBER] => CHECK NO: 69
[CHECKNUMBER] => ORDER NO: 16
[REFTEXT] => Array
(
[0] => Party table
[1] => LOCATION 4
)
)
[ITEM] => Array
(
[0] => Product 1
[1] => Product 2
[2] => Product 3
)
[TRAILER] => Array
(
[CLERK] => Tom
[MACHINE] => S000-T1
[TIME] => 21:43
[CONSEC] => 000023
)
)
The element text is there but the other elements within are not. Is there a simple option to the function or do I need to parse the whole string manually?

Answer 1

If it doesn't work with simplexml_load_string() you should try work with the data as recursive objects with DOMDocument because it allows to work with children nodes and I think it is not limited.
Please consider reading the following pages:
http://php.net/manual/en/class.domdocument.php
http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_xml_dom.asp