PHP simplexml_load_string not working

Question

I have a XML String retrieved from a XML file. I can't access the file directly using simplexml_load_file(). Reason is I have to get this through Amazon S3 getObject(). When I echo the string I can see the out put as a real XML file. But when I try to load it to a XML object using bellow code it doesn't work. The variable $s3Data exactly contain the XML content in the given link.

$xml = simplexml_load_string($s3Data);

I need your help to figure this out. The XML string I am getting is available here.

http://mediatheques-aphp.bibliomedias.net/12.xml

EDIT

I created the XML string and tested. Now I get following errors. How can I fix these.

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: Entity: line 12: parser error : Input is not proper UTF-8, indicate encoding ! Bytes: 0xEF 0x76 0x65 0x3C in C:\Program Files\Zend\Apache2\htdocs\voxmedia\application\modules\import\controllers\NaiveController.php on line 1458

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: 2009 naïve in C:\Program Files\Zend\Apache2\htdocs\voxmedia\application\modules\import\controllers\NaiveController.php on line 1458

Warning: simplexml_load_string() [function.simplexml-load-string]: ^ in C:\Program Files\Zend\Apache2\htdocs\voxmedia\application\modules\import\controllers\NaiveController.php on line 1458

OK Now I feel the issue is with sort of string encoding or something. Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks.

it "doesnt work" is never enough information. at least provide the error message. — Gordon, Feb 15 '12 at 08:52
Hi. There is no error message. My code work with other XML String. Please don't think about a file. Just think that you have a php string variable which has the content of given URL. `$s3Data` is a string variable which contains things in the given XML file. Don't think about getObject() etc... — Prasad Rajapaksha, Feb 15 '12 at 09:03
possible duplicate of [Input is not proper UTF-8 encoding](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2507608/error-input-is-not-proper-utf-8-indicate-encoding-using-phps-simplexml-lo) — Gordon, Feb 15 '12 at 09:19
It's looks like possible duplicate. But their answers `utf8_encode() didn't work for me. I've put my own answer with the way I fixed it. Thanks Gordon for your help anyway. — Prasad Rajapaksha, Feb 15 '12 at 10:32

vitaly goji · Answer 1 · 2014-12-19T23:25:33.060

5

simplexml_load_string and simplexml_load_file are buggy and don't work well on XML with a complex markup. I tried both functions to parse some VALID XML SOAP responses and could not even get an error message. I had to use DOMDocument instead (worked like a charm).

Here is how we suppose to check simplexml for errors (if you are lucky to see errors, not just "false" returned from function)

libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
$xml=simplexml_load_string($myXMLData); //or simplexml_load_file

foreach( libxml_get_errors() as $error ) {

    print_r($error);

}

edited Dec 19 '14 at 23:25

answered Dec 19 '14 at 22:38

vitaly goji

256
4
13

Oh goodness gracious! I've been trying for hours to load the result of a SOAP request string with `simplexml_load_string` and it insisted on just not working (without any error). Thanks for the `DOMDocument` reference, made my day! – Luís Cruz Jul 17 '15 at 08:52

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 15 '12 at 10:23

I could find an answer to my question with a small workaround. simplexml_load_string() continuously displayed encoding errors. So I used simplexml_load_file() as bellow. I've saved the file in to local location and then load with simplexml_load_file().

$tempLocalPath = "temp/data.xml";
file_put_contents($tempLocalPath, $s3Data);
$xml = simplexml_load_file($tempLocalPath);

However still I don't understan why simplexml_load_string() couldn't parse the same thing.

Kadir Güler · Answer 3 · 2023-02-15T13:32:57.297

0

if your xml is soap request. You can try this

$testxml= htmlentities(strval($xml));

edited Feb 15 '23 at 13:32

answered Feb 15 '23 at 13:32

Kadir Güler

1
1

score -1 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 04 '18 at 06:18

-1

You should try this:

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
$result = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
simplexml_load_string($result);

edited Mar 04 '18 at 06:18

xskxzr

12,442
12
37
77

answered Jan 12 '18 at 12:18

Visakh B Sujathan

229
1
4
25

This is the full version of what he's doing and it helps in no way. simplexml_load_string is bugged. – Harijs Krūtainis Apr 20 '20 at 12:01

Bob Fanger · Answer 5 · 2012-02-15T09:16:46.543

-1

When you echo a variable which is actually an object its __toString() method is called to convert the object to a string but when you pass the object to function the object issn't converted.

Use:

$xml = simplexml_load_string( (string)$s3Data);

To cast the $s3Data object to a string.

PS: Use var_dump($s3Data) and var_dump($xml) to debug the contents of a variable instead of echo.

edited Feb 15 '12 at 09:16

answered Feb 15 '12 at 08:50

Bob Fanger

28,949
7
62
78

No casting didn't work. I tried that. My code work with other XML String. Please don't think about a file. Just think that you have a php string variable which has the content of given file. – Prasad Rajapaksha Feb 15 '12 at 09:00
Strange using $xml = simplexml_load_string(file_get_contents('http://mediatheques-aphp.bibliomedias.net/12.xml')); works on my machine, no xml errors whatsoever. – Bob Fanger Feb 15 '12 at 09:09
Quoting the OP: *I have to get this through Amazon S3 getObject().* – Gordon Feb 15 '12 at 09:11

PHP simplexml_load_string not working

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