Can't solve SimpleXML Error: String could not be parsed as XML'

[skinny monkey]

I have the following xml file that i'm trying to use to learn xml:
rss.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<channel id="Channel 76">
  <title>My First RSS</title>
  <link>http://dev.discovery.com/demo/SOAP/</link>
  <description>booga booga</description>
  <language>en-us</language>
  <pubDate>Sun, 19 March 2006 21:25:29 -0500</pubDate>
  <image>
    <title>About.com</title>
    <url>http://z.about.com/d/lg/rss.gif</url>
    <link>http://about.com/</link>
    <width>88</width>
    <height>31</height>
  </image>
  <item>
    <title>And the Oscar goes to...</title>
    <link>http://classicalmusic.about.com/b/a/249503.htm</link>
    <description>Find out who won this year's Oscar for Best
    Music...</description>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>And the Oscar goes to...</title>
    <link>http://classicalmusic.about.com/b/a/249503.htm</link>
    <description>Find out who won this year's Oscar for Best
    Music...</description>
  </item>
</channel>

I'm trying to iterate through the entries with:

 $xml_file = "rss.xml";
    $sxml = new SimpleXmlElement($xml_file);
    foreach($sxml->channel as $channel)
    {
        echo "<h1>{$channel['id']}</h1>";
        echo '<ul>';   
        foreach($channel->item as $item)
        {
            echo '<li>Title: ' . $item->title . '</li>';
            echo '<li>Description: ' . $item->description . '</li>';
        }
        echo '</ul>';
    } 

...but am getting the error:

Warning: Entity: line 1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found in c:\wamp\www\discovery\www\demo\SOAP\index.php on line 19

Warning: rss.xml in c:\wamp\www\discovery\www\demo\SOAP\index.php on line 19

Warning: ^ in c:\wamp\www\discovery\www\demo\SOAP\index.php on line 19

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'String could not be parsed as XML' in c:\wamp\www\discovery\www\demo\SOAP\index.php:19 Stack trace: #0 c:\wamp\www\discovery\www\demo\SOAP\index.php(19): SimpleXMLElement->__construct('rss.xml') #1 {main} thrown in c:\wamp\www\discovery\www\demo\SOAP\index.php on line 19

What does this mean? I can't find anything about it on the internet and it's been bugging me for about an hour now. I've tried outputting the strings using ->asXML(); but it makes no difference.

[foofoonet]

Sorry - bad info given by me

[skinny monkey]

I'm still none the wiser on this, and any hints would be appreciated.

I'm using v5.04 and my libxml version is 2.6.11. Are any of these versions a bit funky?

[clamcrusher]

you need to feed it a string of xml, not a filename

$sxml = new SimpleXmlElement(file_get_contents($xml_file));
// or
$sxml = simplexml_load_file($xml_file);

print_r($sxml); 

[briantw]

[Yes, I know this is an old thread, but I found this by Googling, and if it can help someone else...]

If you are passing it a filename instead of a string, the third parameter needs to be TRUE, e.g.:

$sxe = new SimpleXMLElement('they_wont_let_me_put_a_url_here', NULL, TRUE);

if it isn't, the constructor function expects a string.

RTFM here...

[sorry, they won't let me post links]

[dd1313]

If it will help anyone I solved this by enabling extension=php_openssl.dll

THanks
DD