How to echo an PHP SimpleXMLElement - php

Question

I am learning SimpleXML in PHP. Then I am doing simple test with SimpleXMLElement(...), I dont get anything back. Let me explain. Here is XML file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<movies>
<movie>
<title>PHP: Behind the Parser</title>
<plot>
So, this language. It's like, a programming language. Or is it a
scripting language? All is revealed in this thrilling horror spoof
of a documentary.
</plot>
<great-lines>
<line>PHP solves all my web problems</line>
</great-lines>
<rating type="thumbs">7</rating>
<rating type="stars">5</rating>
</movie>
</movies>
And here is my php file:
<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_file('example.xml');
echo $xml->getName() . "<br>"; // prints "movies"
$movies = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);
echo $movies->getName() . "...<br>"; // doesnt print anything, not event dots
echo $movies->movie[0]->plot; // even this does not print anything
?>
Only output is:
movies
Please read the comments in php file. I am trying to print xml elements in exact same way after loading file and after doing new simpleXML object. Some how it prints only first echo command results. I searched many examples and could not make it work. Where is the mistake? It is big puzzle for me, but maybe a tiny one for you.

Answer 1

simplexml_load_file already returns your SimpleXMLElement object. Try this:
<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_file('example.xml');
echo $xml->getName() . "<br>";
echo $xml->movie[0]->plot . "<br>\n";
?>

Answer 2

change this line:
$movies = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);
to this:
$movies = new SimpleXMLElement($xml->asXML());

Answer 3

What you are trying to do doesn't make much sense, because you are trying to load the same XML twice:
// this loads the XML from a file, giving you a SimpleXMLElement object:
$xml = simplexml_load_file('example.xml');
// this line would do what? load the XML from the XML?
$movies = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);
There are two functions for loading XML in the SimpleXML extension, both return SimpleXMLElement objects:
simplexml_load_file - takes a filename, and loads the XML in that file; with the right PHP settings, you can also give it a URL, and it will load the XML straight from there
simplexml_load_string - takes a string of XML that you've already got from somewhere else, and loads that
The third way of getting a SimpleXMLElement is calling the class's constructor (i.e. writing new SimpleXMLElement). This can actually act like either of the above: by default, it expects a string of XML (like simplexml_load_string), but you can also set the 3rd parameter to true to say that it's a path or URL (like simplexml_load_file).
The result of all three of these methods is exactly the same, they're just different ways of getting there depending on what you currently have (and, to some extent, how you want your code to look).
As a side-note, there are two more functions which do take an object of XML you've already parsed: simplexml_import_dom and dom_import_simplexml. These are actually pretty cool, because the DOM is a standard, comprehensive, but rather fiddly and verbose way of acting on XML, whereas SimpleXML is, well, simple - and using these functions you can actually use both with very little penalty, because they just change the wrapper of the object without having to re-parse the underlying XML.

Answer 4

try this
<?php
$movies = simplexml_load_file('sample.xml');
foreach($movies as $key=>$val)
{
echo $val->title.'<br>';
echo $val->plot.'<br>';
echo $val->rating[0];
echo $val->rating[1];
}
?>