Question

How can I parse XML data using PHP? I want to get the contents of just the element named

<profile xmlns="mysite.com">
 <confirmationNumber>128686132</confirmationNumber>
 <merchantRefNum>123456</merchantRefNum>
 <customerEmail>[e-mail]</customerEmail>
</profile>

I was trying to use this code

 $sxe = new SimpleXMLElement($decodedMessage);
 echo $sxe->getName() . "\n";
 foreach ($sxe->children() as $child)
 {
 echo $child->getName() . "\n";
 }

But I don’t know how to select a specific element.

Answer 1

You don’t need the traversal methods of SimpleXML. Just use simplexml_load_string() if you already have it in one:

$xml = simplexml_load_string($decodedMessage);

Then accessing the content is as simple as:

print $xml->customerEmail;