PHP SimpleXML Breaking when trying to traverse nodes - php

Question

I'm trying to read the xml information that tumblr provides to create a kind of news feed off the tumblr, but I'm very stuck.
<?php
$request_url = 'http://candybrie.tumblr.com/api/read?type=post&start=0&num=5&type=text';
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url);
if (!$xml)
{
exit('Failed to retrieve data.');
}
else
{
foreach ($xml->posts[0] AS $post)
{
$title = $post->{'regular-title'};
$post = $post->{'regular-body'};
$small_post = substr($post,0,320);
echo .$title.;
echo '<p>'.$small_post.'</p>';
}
}
?>
Which always breaks as soon as it tries to go through the nodes. So basically "tumblr->posts;....ect" is displayed on my html page.
I've tried saving the information as a local xml file. I've tried using different ways to create the simplexml object, like loading it as a string (probably a silly idea). I double checked that my webhosting was running PHP5. So basically, I'm stuck on why this wouldn't be working.
EDIT: Ok I tried changing from where I started (back to the original way it was, starting from tumblr was just another (actually silly) way to try to fix it. It still breaks right after the first ->, so displays "posts[0] AS $post....ect" on screen.
This is the first thing I've ever done in PHP so there might be something obvious that I should have set up beforehand or something. I don't know and couldn't find anything like that though.

Answer 1

This should work :
<?php
$request_url = 'http://candybrie.tumblr.com/api/read?type=post&start=0&num=5&type=text';
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url);
if ( !$xml ){
exit('Failed to retrieve data.');
}else{
foreach ( $xml->posts[0] AS $post){
$title = $post->{'regular-title'};
$post = $post->{'regular-body'};
$small_post = substr($post,0,320);
echo $title;
echo '<p>'.$small_post.'</p>';
echo '<hr>';
}
}

Answer 2

First thing in you code is that you used root element that should not be used.
<?php
$request_url = 'http://candybrie.tumblr.com/api/read?type=post&start=0&num=5&type=text';
$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url);
if (!$xml)
{
exit('Failed to retrieve data.');
}
else
{
foreach ($xml->posts->post as $post)
{
$title = $post->{'regular-title'};
$post = $post->{'regular-body'};
$small_post = substr($post,0,320);
echo .$title.;
echo '<p>'.$small_post.'</p>';
}
}
?>

Answer 3

$xml->posts returns you the posts nodes, so if you want to iterate the post nodes you should try $xml->posts->post, which gives you the ability to iterate through the post nodes inside the first posts node.
Also as Needhi pointed out you shouldn't pass through the root node (tumblr), because $xml represents itself the root node. (So I fixed my answer).