php - xml data parsing

Question

I am working on getting some xml data into a php variable so I can easily call it in my html webpage. I am using this code below:

$ch      = curl_init();
$timeout = 5;

$url = "http://www.dictionaryapi.com/api/v1/references/collegiate/xml/define?key=0b03f103-f6a7-4bb1-9136-11ab4e7b5294";

$definition = simplexml_load_file($url);

echo $definition->entry[0]->def;

However my results are: .

I am not sure what I am doing wrong and I have followed the php manual, so I am guessing it is something obvious but I am just not understanding it correctly.

The actual xml results from that link used in cURL are visible by clicking the link below , I did not post it because it is rather long:

http://www.dictionaryapi.com/api/v1/references/sd3/xml/test?key=9d92e6bd-a94b-45c5-9128-bc0f0908103d

It's working fine... What exactly are you trying to do? (add a semi-colon on your `curl_close` and `print_r($definition->entry[0]->def)` instead of echoing it... it's a SimpleXMLElement Object) — brbcoding, Jul 10 '13 at 18:45
->def is a SimpleXMLElement what do you expect when echo'ing this? What value are you really trying to display? — tlenss, Jul 10 '13 at 18:49
http://php.net/simplexml.examples-basic - and if you ask a question about XML/simplexml, it's of no interest that you use curl. This can be written in two lines instead (just did). Also you need to make clear what your concrete question is. Why do you expect that to work? What do you expect it to do (what should that give)? Etc, — hakre, Jul 13 '13 at 11:16

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 10 '13 at 18:54

<?php
$ch = curl_init();
$timeout = 5;

$url = "http://www.dictionaryapi.com/api/v1/references/collegiate/xml/define?key=0b03f103-f6a7-4bb1-9136-11ab4e7b5294";
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
$data = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch); // you were missing a semicolon


$definition = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($definition->entry[0]->def);
echo '</pre>';

// this returns the SimpleXML Object


// to get parts, you can do something like this...
foreach($definition->entry[0]->def[0] as $entry) {
    echo $entry[0] . "<br />";
}

// which returns

transitive verb
14th century
1 a
:to determine or identify the essential qualities or meaning of 
b
:to discover and set forth the meaning of (as a word)
c
:to create on a computer 
2 a
:to fix or mark the limits of : 
b
:to make distinct, clear, or detailed especially in outline 
3
: 
intransitive verb
:to make a

Working Demo

php - xml data parsing

1 Answers1