Import and parse XML with PHP - php

I am trying to import a XML file via API into my php script which then will parse said XML file and extract a string. Ive searched across the webspace for an answer, and though I have found a ton of resources I still cannot get this script to work.
The XML file that I am loading will look something like this
<api version="2">
<currentTime>2012-07-28</currentTime>
<result>
<rowset name="accounts" key="accountID" columns="accountID,accountKey,balance">
<row accountID="555555555" accountKey="6666" balance="7777777777.23"/>
</rowset>
</result>
<cachedUntil>2012-07-28</cachedUntil>
</api>
I am trying to get my php script to fetch the value of the attribute balance.
This is the code that I have put together so far:
<?php
$apiurl = "api.some-arbitrary-api-site.com;
$xml = simplexml_load_file($apiurl);
print_r($xml);
$balance = $xml->balance;
print_r($balance);
?>
This returns:
SimpleXMLElement Object ( )
Also following some other web tutorials I have tried this change
$balance = $xml->row->attributes()->balance;
print_r($balance);
Which spits out
Warning: main() [function.main]: Node no longer exists in C:\xampp\htdocs\EVE\progress\import.php on line 22
Warning: main() [function.main]: Node no longer exists in C:\xampp\htdocs\EVE\progress\import.php on line 22
What am I doing wrong? The end result is for the page to load this API and fetch the balance once every two days and store the data to be used in a chart rendered using highchart.
Any help will be appreciated!
Thanks

Musa answered the question
I don't know simplexml but shouldn't it be
$xml->result->rowset->row->attributes()->balance – Musa
I was being an idiot and didnt check the xml over again when typing in the path.
Thanks

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I have tried the basic implementation of this, but I keep getting the follow error:
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Here is the already existing XML file that is being used:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<tasks>
<users/>
<taskList>
<tasks id="1234">
<activities>
<activity/>
</activities>
</task>
</taskList>
</tasks>
Here is the PHP code:
<?php
$file = 'tasks.xml';
$xml = simplexml_load_file($file);
$activities = $xml->activities;
$activity = $activities->addChild('activity');
$activity->setAttribute('id', '45678');
$activity->addChild('assigned', 'Jon');
$activity->addChild('priority', 'low');
$xml->asXML($file);
I am hard coding the values in just to get the append to work, but eventually these values will be from a submitted html form.
Any ideas as to why this is failing?
There are a couple of problems with your code. Firstly your XML is invalid, your close tag should be </tasks>.
When you try and get the <activities> tag in
$activities = $xml->activities;
this is trying to find the tag just off the root of the document, you could use the full path
$activities = $xml->taskList->tasks->activities;
or use (I have in this code) XPath to find it, this also allows you to pick out (if neccessary) which <tasks> tag you use depending of id.
$activities = $xml->xpath("//activities")[0];
$activity = $activities->addChild('activity');
$activity->addAttribute('id', '45678');
$activity->addChild('assigned', 'Jon');
$activity->addChild('priority', 'low');
You also use setAttribute() which doesn't exist - as the code shows it is addAttribute().

PHP not parsing XML in expected format?

Im trying to pull this data into PHP, ultimately get it into Javascript so I can make some graphs.
When I download the data using cURL from my mac terminal, I open it in xCode and it looks exactly as expected. No issues accessing the website for data:
curl "http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/pages/‌​XmlView.aspx?data=yieldyear&year=2015" > test.xml
open test.xml
When I try to pull into PHP, the xml looks very different. For example, the d:BC_1MONTH tag just isn't present:
$url = "http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/pages/XmlView.aspx?data=yieldyear&year=2015";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($url);
print_r($xml);
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print_r() doesn't work as expected with SimpleXMLElement objects. You should do this instead: echo $xml->asXML()
When I did that with your code above I saw the element you were asking about.

Php and XML connection(SimpleXML)

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i am having an issue with parsing an XML file using SimpleXML and PHP.
The XML file in question is provided by a third party and includes a number of child elements (going down multiple levels) within it. I know which elements i require and can see them within the XML file, but i just can't seem to get them to print using PHP.
Example XML feed for test.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Element1 xmlns="" release="8.1" environment="Production" lang="en-US">
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$lib=simplexml_load_file("test.xml");
$make=$lib->Element1->Element2->Element3->Element4->Element5;
print $make;
I have tried to look this up before asking, but the only solutions i can see are when the child attributes are unknown or there are multiple results for each request, which is not the case in this instance.
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Thanks
In your code above, $lib is Element1. So you just need to drop one of your references. This:
$make=$lib->Element1->Element2->Element3->Element4->Element5;
Should become this:
$make=$lib->Element2->Element3->Element4->Element5;
Also, SimpleXML is an awful awful awful awful interface (considering that "Simple" is in the name and there is mass confusion about how to use it). I would always recommend DOMDocument instead.
I'd strongly recommend using xpath as it will give you more flexibility e.g. Allow you to restrict results based on xml node attributes.
$xml = simplexml_load_string('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Element1 xmlns="" release="8.1" environment="Production" lang="en-US">
<Element2>
<Element3>
<Element4>
<Element5>it worked</Element5>
</Element4>
</Element3>
</Element2>
</Element1>');
$data=$xml->xpath('/Element1/Element2/Element3/Element4/Element5');
echo (string)$data[0]; //outputs 'it worked'
//this also works
$data=$xml->xpath('//Element5');
echo (string)$data[0]; //outputs 'it worked'

Parsing XML data using PHP

I need to parse all data from below XML file. Please guide me how can I do it? How can I put data into a separate variables or array. Like, the value of <p:productid> tag into $pid and value of <p1:devices> into $pdevice?
Here is a sample file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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You can use the SimpleXML for that.
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Introduction To SimpleXML With PHP

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