Parsing a foursquare KML venue feed with simpleXML - php

Question

I am trying to parse a KML venue feed from foursqare with simpleXML but I cannot get the nested-in-desctription venue url. It looks like simpleXML strips it.
In detail:
The foursqare kml feed looks like this:
<kml>
<Folder>
<name>foursquare checkin history for X</name>
<description>foursquare checkin history for X</description>
<Placemark>
<name>somevenuename</name>
<description>#somevenuename- a foursqareshout!</description>
<updated>Wed, 02 Nov 11 17:00:05 +0000</updated>
<published>Wed, 02 Nov 11 17:00:05 +0000</published>
<visibility>1</visibility>
<Point>
<extrude>1</extrude>
<altitudeMode>relativeToGround</altitudeMode>
<coordinates>xx.xxxxxx,yy.yyyyyy</coordinates>
</Point>
</Placemark>
etc ...
My call to simpleXMl is ... well, simple:
$venue_items = simplexml_load_file($venue_kml_file);
Any ideas who to preserve the html in description?

Answer 1

They're right. This is invalid XML. However, I wrote a workaround for you using regex. It may be a bit hacky, but you can only make due with what you've been given, so here it is:
$xml_string = <<<XML_STRING
<kml>
<Folder>
<name>foursquare checkin history for X</name>
<description>foursquare checkin history for X</description>
<Placemark>
<name>somevenuename</name>
<description>#somevenuename- a foursqareshout!</description>
<updated>Wed, 02 Nov 11 17:00:05 +0000</updated>
<published>Wed, 02 Nov 11 17:00:05 +0000</published>
<visibility>1</visibility>
<Point>
<extrude>1</extrude>
<altitudeMode>relativeToGround</altitudeMode>
<coordinates>xx.xxxxxx,yy.yyyyyy</coordinates>
</Point>
</Placemark>
</Folder>
<Folder>
<name>foursquare checkin history for X</name>
<description>foursquare checkin history for X</description>
<Placemark>
<name>somevenuename</name>
<description>#somevenuename- a foursqareshout!</description>
<updated>Wed, 02 Nov 11 17:00:05 +0000</updated>
<published>Wed, 02 Nov 11 17:00:05 +0000</published>
<visibility>1</visibility>
<Point>
<extrude>1</extrude>
<altitudeMode>relativeToGround</altitudeMode>
<coordinates>xx.xxxxxx,yy.yyyyyy</coordinates>
</Point>
</Placemark>
</Folder>
</kml>
XML_STRING;
preg_match_all( '%<Placemark>(.*?)</Placemark>%s', $xml_string, $placemarks, PREG_SET_ORDER );
for( $x = 0; $x < sizeof($placemarks); $x++ ){
preg_match_all('%<description>(.*?)</description>%s', $placemarks[$x][1], $descriptions, PREG_SET_ORDER );
for( $y = 0; $y < sizeof($descriptions); $y++ ){
echo $descriptions[$y][1];
}
}
Hope that helps...