PHP - Convert incoming HTTP POST into variables - php

Question

I'm working with a web service that is submitting an HTTP POST to a PHP page as follows:
FORM/POST PARAMETERS:
None
HEADERS:
Content-Type: text/xml
BODY:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<mogreet>
<event>message-in</event>
<type>command_sms</type>
<campaign_id>12345</campaign_id>
<shortcode>123456</shortcode>
<msisdn>15552345678</msisdn>
<carrier><![CDATA[T-Mobile]]></carrier>
<carrier_id>2</carrier_id>
<message><![CDATA[xxxx testing]]></message>
</mogreet>
I need to be able to convert each of the XML elements into PHP variables so I can update a database. I've never had to work with an incoming POST with XML data before and not sure where to starT - I am familiar with processing incoming GET/POST requests but not raw xml.

Answer 1

I think you'll need to use $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA. After that then you could use SimpleXMLElement as #ChristianGolihardt suggested.
Note that HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA is only available if the always_populate_raw_post_data setting has been enabled in php.ini. Otherwise, it may be easiest to do this:
$postData = file_get_contents("php://input");
...
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($postData);
...

Answer 2

This will eliminate all the SimpleXMLElement objects and return your array:
from an xml string:
<?php
$xml='<?xml version="1.0"?>
<mogreet>
<event>message-in</event>
<type>command_sms</type>
<campaign_id>12345</campaign_id>
<shortcode>123456</shortcode>
<msisdn>15552345678</msisdn>
<carrier><![CDATA[T-Mobile]]></carrier>
<carrier_id>2</carrier_id>
<message><![CDATA[xxxx testing]]></message>
</mogreet>';
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xml);
$xml_array = json_decode(json_encode((array) $xml), 1);
print_r($xml_array);
?>
from an xml file:
$xml = simplexml_load_file("mogreet.xml");
$xml_array = json_decode(json_encode((array) $xml), 1);
print_r($xml_array);
output:
Array
(
[event] => message-in
[type] => command_sms
[campaign_id] => 12345
[shortcode] => 123456
[msisdn] => 15552345678
[carrier] => Array
(
)
[carrier_id] => 2
[message] => Array
(
)
)

Answer 3

Take a look at SimpleXMLElement:
http://php.net/manual/de/class.simplexmlelement.php
$xmlstr = $_POST['key'];
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr);
//work with $xml like this:
$event = $xml->mogreet->event;
You can see the key if you do this:
print_r($_POST);
Most times, we work with this kind of api, we want to log it, because we can not see it:
$debugFile = 'debug.log'
file_put_contents($debugFile, print_r($_POST, true), FILE_APPEND);
Take also a look at the Answer from Matt Browne, for getting Raw Input.