PHP to interpret raw XML — impossible?

[barneycarroll]

Hi folks,

 

I'm a PHP novice — built sites using it before but always relied upon file system for content management — now I'm developing something slightly more complex and I want to use XML for data storage.

 

My predicament: PHP trips up if I ask it to interpret raw XML.

 

Relevant PHP code (line numbers added for convenience):

14	if(strtolower($filename)==='meta.xml'){
15		$meta = simplexml_load_file($path.$filename);

 

XML file meta.xml:

<?xml version="1" encoding="utf-8"?>
<meta>
<name>3-of-hearts</name>
<title>3 of Hearts</title>
<description>A playing card stuck to a wall with a hand-written pencil inscription on masking tape immediately beneath</description>
</meta>

 

Error output:

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]:

:1: parser error : Malformed declaration expecting version in [code=php:0] on line 15

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: <?xml version="1" encoding="utf-8"?> in [code=php:0] on line 15

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: ^ in [code=php:0] on line 15

 

When I google these errors, I mostly find people with encoding errors or badly formed declarations, who are incidentally writing their XML out with PHP before interpreting it — something I didn't find mentioned in my skim through the docs simplexml parser entries.

 

Is it possible to use simple unscripted valid XML files in PHP, or is the syntax conflict between PHP's short tag and the XML declaration tag, '<?'…'?>' inevitable?

 

 

Regards,

Barney

[jl5501]

the simplexml_load_file manual page has examples just like yours which work.

 

So I can see no reason why you are having problems.

http://php.net/manual/en/book.simplexml.php

[barneycarroll]

Hey jl5501, thanks for the sanity check — was fairly certain I'd RTFMed!

 

FWIW XML is indeed UTF-8 without BOM, passes W3's validator. php v5.2.11. Clues == 0…