Parsing WordPress XML, slash:comments syntax? - php

Question

This is really just a syntax question.
I have a PHP script that parses my WordPress feed and returns the latest posts. I also want my script to parse the # of comments, but the WordPress feed XML object for number of comments has a colon in it (slash:comments). It causes the following error:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected
':' in ... on line ...
I have tried each of the following without luck:
$xml->slash:comments
$comments = 'slash:comments'
$xml->$comments
$xml->slash.':'.comments
$xml->{slash:comments}
$xml->{'slash:comments'}
How do I parse an object with a colon?

Answer 1

Alternatively, you can use xpath() to access the nodes. Given the following as an xml string:
<entry>
<id>http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/xyz12345678</id>
<published>2007-01-17T23:41:00.000Z</published>
<updated>2010-11-14T03:52:25.000Z</updated>
<yt:location>Mount Washington Observatory, NH</yt:location>
<media:group>
<media:title type='plain'>Example of a Title</media:title>
<media:duration seconds='126'/>
</media:group>
</entry>
You could do this:
$xml = simplexml_load_string(*xmlstring_from_above*);
$location = $xml->xpath('yt:location');
echo($location[0]); // output: "Mount Washington Observatory, NH"
$title = $xml->xpath('media:group/media:title');
echo($title[0]); // output: "Example of a Title"
$duration = $xml->xpath('media:group/media:duration');
echo($duration[0]['seconds']); // output: "126"
As you can see, to get the nodes with colons, you may use xpath() with a relative path to the node.

Answer 2

A variable in PHP can never have a colon in it. Therefore, you should check your XML parser to see how it handles colons.

Answer 3

$string = file_get_contents("http://domain.tld/?feed=rss2");
$string = str_replace('slash:comments','slashcomments',$string);
$xml = simplexml_load_string($string);
Use str_replace to remove the colons from the string and allow simplexml_load_string to function as normal.
For example:
$string = file_get_contents("http://domain.tld/?feed=rss2");
$string = str_replace('slash:comments','slashcomments',$string);
$xml = simplexml_load_string($string);
foreach ($xml->channel->item as $val) {
echo $val->pubDate.'<br />';
echo $val->title.'<br />';
echo $val->slashcomments.'<br /><br />';
}
... should return the published date, title, and number of comments of the posts listed in a WordPress feed. My code is more advanced, but this illustrates the workaround.
Thank you, Arda Xi, for your help!