simple XML problem

[snowboardr]

I am unable to get the following script to display anything and i have modified it multiple times to try and get it to work before posting this:

index.php

<?php
if (file_exists('myfile.xml')) {
    $xml = simplexml_load_file('myfile.xml');
 
   //print_r($xml);
  echo $xml->item->description;
} else {
    exit('Failed to open test.xml.');
}
?>

myfile.xml
[/code]
<?xml version="1.0"?>

<item>
<description>Hello!</description>
</item>

[/code]


however this works fine:

<?php
include 'example.php';

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr);

echo $xml->movie[0]->plot; // "So this language. It's like..."
?>

example.php

<?php
$xmlstr = <<<XML
<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?>
<movies>
 <movie>
  <title>PHP: Behind the Parser</title>
  <characters>
   <character>
    <name>Ms. Coder</name>
    <actor>Onlivia Actora</actor>
   </character>
   <character>
    <name>Mr. Coder</name>
    <actor>El Act&#211;r</actor>
   </character>
  </characters>
  <plot>
   So, this language. It's like, a programming language. Or is it a
   scripting language? All is revealed in this thrilling horror spoof
   of a documentary.
  </plot>
  <great-lines>
   <line>PHP solves all my web problems</line>
  </great-lines>
  <rating type="thumbs">7</rating>
  <rating type="stars">5</rating>
 </movie>
</movies>
XML;
?>

Jason

[red]Army[/red] : [white]Combat Engineer[/white] : [blue]21B[/blue]

 

[jpadie]

you need a root element according to the manual.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
   <item>
      <description>Hello!</description>
   </item>
</root>

the code will then ignore the root element. in your example the value would have been in $xml->description

 

[tsuji]

[1] The parallelism goes like this.
>echo $xml->item->description;
[tt]echo $xml->description;[/tt]
The $xml is pointing to the root node, but for some curious design philosophy/legacy(?), the name of the root node is not "naturally" exposed.

[2] Using the same constructor may help to see the parallelism more clearly. It is this.
>$xml = simplexml_load_file('myfile.xml'); [blue]//it is fine[/blue]
[tt]$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('myfile.xml',null,true);[/tt]