Parse XML with Namespace using SimpleXML [duplicate]

Question

I have this as xml:

<root xmlns:event="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/event"> <event:event> <event:sessionKey></event:sessionKey> <event:sessionName>Learn QB in Minutes</event:sessionName> <event:sessionType>9</event:sessionType> <event:hostWebExID></event:hostWebExID> <event:startDate>02/12/2009</event:startDate> <event:endDate>02/12/2009</event:endDate> <event:timeZoneID>11</event:timeZoneID> <event:duration>30</event:duration> <event:description></event:description> <event:status>NOT_INPROGRESS</event:status> <event:panelists></event:panelists> <event:listStatus>PUBLIC</event:listStatus> </event:event> ... </root>

How can I loop through all of the event:event nodes and display, for example, all of the event:SessionKey's?

This does not work:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($r); $xml->registerXPathNamespace('e', 'http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/event'); foreach($xml->xpath('//e:event') as $event) { var_export($event->xpath('//e:sessionKey')); }

does not work is and never was a proper error description. PHP gives you the following error: "Warning: SimpleXMLElement::xpath(): Undefined namespace prefix". If you develop software, you should listen to PHP's warnings. See as well: How to get useful error messages in PHP? — hakre
– hakre, Commented Nov 23, 2013 at 14:32
See also Reference - how do I handle namespaces (tags and attributes with colon in) in SimpleXML? — IMSoP
– IMSoP, Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 14:24

ax. · Accepted Answer · 2009-03-07 19:45:36Z

33

it does work without registerXPathNamespace and the full namespace prefix in the xpath queries:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($r); foreach($xml->xpath('//event:event') as $event) { var_export($event->xpath('event:sessionKey')); }

answered Mar 7, 2009 at 19:45

ax.

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1 Comment

ThW Over a year ago

Yes and no, actually I consider this a bug. PHP automatically registers the namespaces of the current context. This even overrides namespaces you register yourself. You base your source on the prefixes used in the document your loading. An external source you have no control over. Prefixes that are optional, ambiguous and can change any time. Namespaces are defined, unique and stable - prefixes/aliases are not.

Benjamin Loison · Accepted Answer · 2023-09-16 18:46:41Z

You have to register the namespace for each simpleXMLElement object you use.

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($r); $xml->registerXPathNamespace('e', 'http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/event'); foreach($xml->xpath('//e:event') as $event) { $event->registerXPathNamespace('e', 'http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/event'); var_export($event->xpath('//e:sessionKey')); }

The namespace should also be declared somewhere in the xml file.

<event:event xmlns:event="http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/event"> ...

The method ax described works too. You can skip the registerXPathNamespace if you know the xml file will always use the same prefix.

Benjamin Loison · Accepted Answer · 2023-09-16 18:47:15Z

Having worked a lot with simplexml, this is how I do it.

The magic trick if you already have an element and just want to get its different namespaced children, say for a structure like this:

<entry> <title type="text">My test entry</title> <gd:when startTime="2017-02-26T02:00:00Z" endTime="2017-02-26T03:00:00Z"/> <gc:notes type="string">A type</gc:notes> </entry>

Is to send TRUE as the second parameter to the children function:

 $title = (string) $entry->title; $gd = $entry->children('gd', TRUE); $attrs = $gd->when->attributes(); $startTime = (string) $attrs->startTime; $gc = $entry->children('gc', TRUE); $notes = (string) $gc->notes();

ewwink · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-05 03:26:31Z

19

here alternative that worked for me.

$xml = simplexml_load_string($r); $ns = $xml->getNamespaces(true); foreach ($xml->children($ns['event'])->event as $skey) { $sessionKey = $skey->children($ns['event'])->sessionKey; echo $sessionKey; }

answered Feb 5, 2014 at 3:26

ewwink

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2 Comments

Álvaro González Over a year ago

The trick is using children() with at least its first parameter. If you know the document structure before hand, you can even type the namespace name (or its URI) manually as an alternative to getNamespaces().

PeterM Over a year ago

For easier typing trick is to cast to object, ie $ns = (object) $xml->getNamespaces(true); then You could use this like $sessionKey = $skey->children($ns->event)->sessionKey;

user1726343 · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-30 19:11:44Z

Another approach is to use SimpleXML for parsing and DOMDocument for manipulation/access, which bypasses namespacing issues altogether:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($r); $xml = dom_import_simplexml($xml); $nodelist= $xml->getElementsByTagName('event'); for($i = 0; $i < $nodelist->length; $i++) { $sessions = $nodelist->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('sessionKey'); echo $sessions->item(0)->nodeValue; }

Raf · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-21 10:24:42Z

Using registerXPathNamespace and then calling xpath didn't actually work for me. I had to go with the solution provided in this great post : http://blog.preinheimer.com/index.php?/archives/172-SimpleXML,-Namespaces-Hair-loss.html

So in your case, this :

echo $xml->children('http://www.webex.com/schemas/2002/06/service/event')->sessionName;

Will output:

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