simplexml_load_file errors: How Do Plan for Bad XML?

[mtorbin]

I have a process that I've build which will load multiple XML documents into memory using simplexml_load_file.  The problem is that some of the documents contain data that is screwy.  Specifically, we have file URLs that contain +, ˙ and & which obviously causes the simplexml_load_file to fail.  Any suggestions on this?  Modifying the XML before simplexml_load_file is not an option because we're downloading it from a vendor site.

 

Thanks,

 

- MT

[JonnoTheDev]

Modifying it is an option as the xml can be read into a variable prior to being used with simpleXML.

For this you will not make use of simplexml_load_file() but simplexml_load_string()

 

Read the contents of the xml file into a variable.

Scan for any bad characters and remove.

Pass the cleaned xml ino simplexml_load_string()

 

Also XML that contains HTML markup should be contained in a CDATA node. You could specify this in the simpleXML function parameter with the following constants http://uk3.php.net/manual/en/libxml.constants.php

[mtorbin]

Neil,

 

Thanks for this!  I'll give it a go now.

 

- MT