Question

I am working on an interface with the amazon product advertising API.

I have XML that includes a section similar to this:

<BrowseNodes>
  <BrowseNode>
     <Name>Category</Name>
     <BrowseNodeId>123456</BrowseNodeId>
     <Ancestors>
       <BrowseNode>
         <Name>Whatever</Name>
        <BrowseNodeId>987654</BrowseNodeId>
       <BrosweNode>
     </Ancestors>
  </BroseNode>
  <BroseNode>
  ...
  </BrowseNode>
</BrowseNodes>

I’ll have to double check my XML. there might be one more level of <BrowseNode> </BrowseNode> outside of the first <BrowseNode> I posted above.

I need to find the <BrowseNode> <Name> that is inside the Ancestors element where the <Ancestors> element is a sibling of the <Name>Category</Name>

I’m just getting started with xpath, and that’s over my head.

I have been coding it like this:

//$XML fromapi
$parsed=simplexml_load_string($XML);

//narrow it down
$s = '/ItemSearchResponse/Items/Item';
$items = $parsed->xpath($s);

//Get only the top level BrowseNodes for this item.
foreach($items as $item)
  {
    // this narrows it down close to what I posted above.
    $s = 'BrowseNodes/BrowseNode';
    $top_browsenode_search=$item->xpath($s);

      //there may be a simpler way, but I think it is working for me:
      foreach ($top_browsenode_search as $top_browsenode)
        {
          $temp_array=array();//must be emptied each time.
          $s = 'Name';
          $temp_array['name']=$top_browsenode->xpath($s);
          $s = 'BrowseNodeId';
          $temp_array['id']=$top_browsenode->xpath($s);

      $browsenodes[]=$temp_array;
        }
    $top_browsenodes[]=$browsenodes;
    unset ($browsenodes);        
  }    

Is anyone able to help with that xpath syntax? If not directly, could you point me to any novice friendly documentation you know of? I downloaded a great book on the subject, I’ve learned a lot from it, but It’s a little over my head.

below is not part of the question, but rather evidence that one of the answers was correct. See the comments for details.
Expected result: “Whatever” Given Result: “Whatever”

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<root>
<BrowseNodes>
  <BrowseNode>
     <Name>Category</Name>
     <BrowseNodeId>123456</BrowseNodeId>
     <Ancestors>
       <BrowseNode>
         <Name>Whatever</Name>
         <BrowseNodeId>987654</BrowseNodeId>
       </BrowseNode>
     </Ancestors>
  </BrowseNode>
  <BrowseNode>
     <Name>SomethingElse</Name>
     <BrowseNodeId>951753</BrowseNodeId>
  </BrowseNode>
</BrowseNodes>
</root>
BrowseNodes/BrowseNode/Name
Array
(
    [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
        (
            [0] => Category
        )

    [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object
        (
            [0] => SomethingElse
        )

)

BrowseNodes/BrowseNode[Name="Category"]/Ancestors/BrowseNode/Name 
Array
(
    [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
        (
            [0] => Whatever
        )

)

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you want to get just the node:

BrowserNodes/BrowserNode[Name=_______]/Ancestors/BrowserNode/Name

If you want to get the node’s text:

BrowserNodes/BrowserNode[Name=_______]/Ancestors/BrowserNode/Name/text()

In both examples, replace _ with the name for which you are searching.