navigating through this xml structure with php - php

Question

Im trying to loop through and display info from the following xml structure.
<users_list>
−<users type="array">
+<user>
<id>Blah</id>
</user>
+<user></user>
+<user></user>
</users>
<next_link>6</next_link>
<prev_link>4</prev_link>
</users_list>
Im using the following PHP to grab the nodes.
$xml = simplexml_load_string($rawxml);
foreach($xml->users_list AS $key){
$name = $key->users->user->{"id"};
}
$next = $key->{"next_link"};
$prev = $key->{"prev_link"};
Ive tried a couple variations, but i dont see any effect. I either get nothing when i echo my variables, or invalid arguments when on my foreach function

Answer 1

When using SimpleXML, you should always name your variables after the root node they contain, it makes things simpler and obvious:
$users_list = simplexml_load_string(
'<users_list>
<users type="array">
<user>
<id>Blah</id>
</user>
<user></user>
<user></user>
</users>
<next_link>6</next_link>
<prev_link>4</prev_link>
</users_list>'
);
foreach ($users_list->users->user as $user)
{
echo "User ", $user->id, "\n";
}
echo "next: ", $users_list->next_link, "\n";
echo "prev: ", $users_list->prev_link, "\n";

Answer 2

When troubleshooting in PHP, var_dump and print_r are your friend!
If you wish to browse your result like an array, then cast it to an array.
$value = (array) $value;
I did the following:
$xmlStr = '<users_list>
<users type="array">
<user>
<id>Blah</id>
</user>
<user></user>
<user></user>
</users>
<next_link>6</next_link>
<prev_link>4</prev_link>
</users_list>';
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlStr);
foreach($xml->users->user AS $key=>$value){
$value = (array) $value;
$name = $value["id"];
var_dump($name);
}
which gives the output:
string(4) "Blah"
NULL
NULL
Check the PHP help documents for further info on simplexml
http://nl2.php.net/manual/en/function.simplexml-load-string.php
http://nl2.php.net/manual/en/class.simplexmlelement.php

Answer 3

print_r($xml) should give you all the information you need.
You will probably find that the actual array is $xml->user_list->users->user,
also casting helps save some time
foreach($xml->user_list->users->user as $value) {
$name = (string) $value->id;
}