Problems parsing XML

[Christoph]

I am sending some user data to an API which in return sends me a response in XML format. I use CURL to send the data.

- <response>
  <sm>OK</sm> 
  <lid>16819301</lid> 
  <ldaid>1185459</ldaid> 
  <nb>4</nb> 
  <amt>100.75</amt> 
- <buyer>
  <bn>Buyer 1</bn> 
  <id>-1</id> 
  <lu>/images/ilitest/lp_test_1.gif</lu> 
  <lp>http://www.example.org/buyer1</lp> 
  <dsc>Test description for company 1</dsc> 
  <ph>800-555-0111</ph> 
  <em>buyer1@example.org</em> 
  </buyer>
- <buyer>
  <bn>Buyer 2</bn> 
  <id>-1</id> 
  <lu>/images/ilitest/lp_test_2.gif</lu> 
  <lp>http://www.example.org/buyer2</lp> 
  <dsc>Test description for company 2</dsc> 
  <ph>800-555-0122</ph> 
  <em>buyer2@example.org</em> 
  </buyer>
- <buyer>
  <bn>Buyer 3</bn> 
  <id>-1</id> 
  <lu>/images/ilitest/lp_test_3.gif</lu> 
  <lp>http://www.example.org/buyer3</lp> 
  <dsc>Test description for company 3</dsc> 
  <ph>800-555-0133</ph> 
  <em>buyer3@example.org</em> 
  </buyer>
- <buyer>
  <bn>Buyer 4</bn> 
  <id>-1</id> 
  <lu>/images/ilitest/lp_test_4.gif</lu> 
  <lp>http://www.example.org/buyer4</lp> 
  <dsc>Test description for company 4</dsc> 
  <ph>800-555-0144</ph> 
  <em>buyer4@example.org</em> 
  </buyer>
  <sid /> 
  <cid /> 
  <mid /> 
  <tid /> 
  </response>

However, I also see this header information:

string(1334) "HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Resin/3.0.23
P3P: CP="CAO DSP COR CURa ADMa DEVa TAIa OUR BUS IND UNI COM NAV INT"
Pragma: no-cache
Expires: Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-cache
Cache-Control: no-store
Set-Cookie: JSESSIONID=abcoBg_CUGPxcbPTo1_bs; path=/
Content-Type: text/xml
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Date: Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:27:44 GMT

Now my problem is to parse the XML properly and then to display just the information about the 4 different buyers if the status is "OK" (or to display an error page if the status is not Ok.

I spent the last 3 hours trying different code samples from many different websites, but this thing will just not work. Now I am completely drawing blank and need some advice on how to tackle this one and which way to go.

Thanks.

[ditch182]

What language are you trying to handle the data in? php, perl, python? Parsing XML can be tricky, and each language handles it a little differently. For instance, python has an awesome XML parser called BeautifulSoup, but in php you kind of have to roll your own.

[JDevereux]

In php using SimpleXML

<?php
$response = simplexml_load_file('yourfile.xml'); //or perhaps simplexml_load_string() in your case
if ($response->sm == 'OK') {
foreach ($response->buyer as $buyer) {
echo $buyer->bn;
echo $buyer->id;
echo $buyer->lu;
echo $buyer->lp;
echo $buyer->dsc;
echo $buyer->ph;
echo $buyer->em;
}
}
else
echo "no dam good";
?>

[boomerang88]

Nice Job J. Thats just what I was looking for I think. I have a couple questions for you if you don't mind. Just testing on a local file, I had to remove the "if(response==ok)" part or it wouldn't work. A simple explanation of what that section checks for would be appreciated. Also my end result would be to receive a download feed using a url to get it and parse it out. I'll test it shortly but I wonder if I need to use a different function? All the other tips I've found use get_feed() but your solution is so much simpler.
Thanks

[JDevereux]

if ($response->sm == 'OK') just checks the <sm>OK</sm> field in your sample XML document. From your original post, I assumed that was what you meant.

I don't know if simplexml_load_file will work for you, all you can do is try, probably depends on the data source. You can use simplexml_load_string if you're getting the xml data via curl.

Not sure what get_feed() is, google shows it as a SimplePie function. SimplePie is meant for RSS/Atom feeds (I use it myself ) , not generic XML data like your sample file. Better to use SimpleXML for that.

[boomerang88]

Thanks J. I'm not the original poster, was just looking for solutions and found your post. Works great for the xml files so thanks. I can get the feed in XML so should work fine.
Thanks for your help.