PHP scrape data from website

Question

I am new to programming. So I choose to build a webpage by using Wordpress. But I am trying to gather weather data from other sites, I could not find a fitting plugin for scraping the data, and decided to give it a try and put something together myself. But with my limited understanding of programming is giving me issues. With a little inspirations from the web I have put this together:

$html = file_get_contents('http://www.frederikshavnhavn.dk/scripts/weatherwindow.php?langid=2'); //get the html returned from the following url

$poke_doc = new DOMDocument();

libxml_use_internal_errors(false); //disable libxml errors

if(!empty($html)){ //if any html is actually returned

  $poke_doc->loadHTML($html);
  libxml_clear_errors(); //remove errors for yucky html

  $poke_xpath = new DOMXPath($poke_doc);

  //get all the spans's with an id
  $poke_type = $poke_xpath->query("//span[@class='weathstattype']");
  $poke_text = $poke_xpath->query("//span[@class='weathstattext']");

  foreach($poke_text as $text){ 
    foreach($poke_type as $type){
    echo $type->nodeValue;
    echo $text->nodeValue . "</br>";
    continue 2;
   } 
  break;
 }    
}

Being that this is all new to me, and I am really trying to get this to work for me, hoping for a better understanding of the code behind the works.

What I am trying to achieve is a formatted list with the data. 1. value $type $text 2. value $type $text

Right now it is giving me a lot of trouble. when I use the continue 2 it does not change the value $type, but when I just use continue statement it changes $type but not $text. How can I make it change both values each time?

Thanks for your help.

You should add the output of `var_dump($poke_type);` and `var_dump($poke_text);`. Do these at least contain all the information you need? — jeroen, Mar 25 '16 at 08:46
Yeah, they should all the information. But I am not sure why I need var_dump($poke_type); and var_dump($poke_text); ? Or where to put it, as I see they only give me a couple of errors? — Lasser, Mar 25 '16 at 08:59
You might want to try out [Goutte](https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/Goutte). Here's how you use it http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15628926/how-to-use-goutte#answer-19257829 — kabirbaidhya, Mar 25 '16 at 09:02

SnakeFoot · Answer 1 · 2016-03-25T09:20:12.030

try adding this method:

function get_inner_html( $node ) {
    $innerHTML= '';
    $children = $node->childNodes;
    foreach ($children as $child) {
        $innerHTML .= $child->ownerDocument->saveXML( $child );
    }

    return $innerHTML;
}

then replace the foreach with this:

  foreach($poke_text as $text){ 
     //echo $type ->nodeValue . "</n>";
      echo get_inner_html($text ).'<br>';

  }  
    foreach($poke_type as $type){
     //echo $text ->nodeValue;
     echo get_inner_html($type ).'<br>';
  }

produces this:

197Â° (Syd) 5.7 Â°C Stigende 4.8 m/s Stigende 5.4 m/s Stigende -6 cm Faldende 1004 hPa Vindretning Lufttemperatur Middel vindhastighed Max vindhastighed Vandstand Lufttryk

Mohsin Shoaib · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-25T09:03:26.490

Buddy in your code your foreach loops (in last) you use $type as $text and $text as $type.. I run the code and just change the variables as they should be its working fine..

$html = file_get_contents('http://www.frederikshavnhavn.dk/scripts/weatherwindow.php?langid=2'); //get the html returned from the following url

$poke_doc = new DOMDocument();

libxml_use_internal_errors(false); //disable libxml errors

if(!empty($html)){ //if any html is actually returned

  $poke_doc->loadHTML($html);
  libxml_clear_errors(); //remove errors for yucky html

  $poke_xpath = new DOMXPath($poke_doc);

  //get all the spans's with an id
  $poke_type = $poke_xpath->query("//span[@class='weathstattype']");

  $poke_text = $poke_xpath->query("//span[@class='weathstattext']");

  foreach($poke_text as $text){ 
     echo $text->nodeValue;
  }  
    foreach($poke_type as $type){
     echo $type->nodeValue;
  }
}

And this the out that I got from your code (by changing the variables in loop)

196Â° (Syd) 5.6 Â°C 4.1 m/s 5 m/s -6 cm 1004 hPa Vindretning Lufttemperatur Middel vindhastighed Max vindhastighed Vandstand Lufttryk

Now You have your data I think you can manage how to sort them out...

PHP scrape data from website

2 Answers2