simplexml_load_string not creating an object - php

Question

My XML is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<soap:Body>
<FindOrders xmlns="http://www.JOI.com/schemas/ViaSub.WMS/">
<orders>
<order>
<MarkForName />
<BatchOrderID />
<CreationDate>2013-08-09T17:41:00</CreationDate>
<EarliestShipDate />
<ShipCancelDate />
<PickupDate />
<Carrier>USPS</Carrier>
<BillingCode>Prepaid</BillingCode>
<TotWeight>0.00</TotWeight>
<TotCuFt>0.00</TotCuFt>
<TotPackages>1.0000</TotPackages>
<TotOrdQty>1.0000</TotOrdQty>
<TotLines>1.00</TotLines>
<Notes />
<OverAllocated />
<PickTicketPrintDate />
<ProcessDate />
<TrackingNumber />
<LoadNumber />
<BillOfLading />
<MasterBillOfLading />
<ASNSentDate />
<ConfirmASNSentDate />
<RememberRowInfo>398879:12:2:::0:False</RememberRowInfo>
</order>
</orders>
</FindOrders>
<totalOrders xmlns="http://www.JOI.com/schemas/ViaSub.WMS/">1</totalOrders>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
When I do:
$a = simplexml_load_string($str);
print_r($a);
I get: SimpleXMLElement Object ( ) instead of an object with all of those parameters. Why is this?

Answer 1

You are missing the namespace declaration (php manual) for SOAP
$a = simplexml_load_string($str);
$a->registerXPathNamespace('soap', 'http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope');
$result = $a->xpath('//soap:Body');
print_r($result);
Result (preview)
Array
(
[0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[FindOrders] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[orders] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[order] => SimpleXMLElement Object
...
...

Answer 2

I'm guessing when you say you want to see an object with all those parameters, you're looking to output the xml document you just created.
Looking at the documentation at http://www.php.net/manual/en/simplexmlelement.asxml.php, here's what you need to do:
echo $a->asXML();

Answer 3

My case was dealing with soap response. I have to parse and clean it first before converting it to array.
$response = preg_replace("/(<\/?)(\w+):([^>]*>)/", "$1$2$3", $xml); // remove all colons and unnecessary characters.
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($response);
$body = $xml->xpath('//sBody'); // should refer to soap body element like soapbody, sbody, etc..
$array = json_decode(json_encode((array)$body), TRUE);