Trouble loading urlencoded xml file using simplexml_load_file...

[phpFTW]

Hello fellow developers,

 

Let me start by saying I'm still a PHP noob so please don't go too hard on me if I my code reflects this noobishness...

 

So I'm trying to build a (very) simple RSS reader using jQuery and PHP. When the user clicks on an option from a dropdown, an AJAX call is made and passes the url selected from the list to a PHP script.

 

The PHP script then loads the appropriate xml file from an 'xmlcache' folder. Everything is working just fine for files named as such:

 

somefilename_1231231231.xml

 

The problem is that I need it to be able to load files which have been urlencoded such as:

 

http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2Fajaxian_1235523548

 

In case you're wondering, the numbers at the end are a timestamp which will determine if the reader will load a cached copy of the desired xml file (if it's less than an hour old) or if it needs to get a fresh version (this part of the code is not written yet). Here is a look at my script thus far:

 

<?php

$url = "./xmlcache/" . urlencode($_REQUEST['url']); //access url from AJAX call
echo $url; //outputs -> "./xmlcache/http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2Fajaxian_1235523548.xml", which is the same as the file's name
$curTime = time();
$urlParts = explode('_', $url);
$urlTime = intval($urlParts[1]);
$diff = $curTime - $urlTime;
$urlAge = 60 * 60; //60sec * 60min = 3600sec or 1 hour

if(file_exists($url)){
        if($diff > $urlAge){ //the > will be switched to < to make logical sense once testing is done.
                $xml = simplexml_load_file($url);
               
                //ROOT TAG
                foreach($xml as $key0 => $value){
                        echo "$key0: $value";
                        foreach($value->attributes() as $attributeskey0 => $attributesvalue1){
                        echo "$attributeskey0: $attributesvalue1";
                        }
                        echo "<br />";
                       
                        //1 LEVEL BELOW ROOT TAG
                        foreach($value as $key => $value2){
                                echo "$key: $value2";
                                foreach($value2->attributes() as $attributeskey => $attributesvalue2){
                                        echo "$attributeskey = $attributesvalue2";
                                }
                                echo '<br />';
                               
                                //2 LEVELS BELOW ROOT TAG
                                foreach($value2 as $key2 => $value3){
                                        echo "$key2: $value3";
                                        foreach($value3->attributes() as $attributeskey2 => $attributesvalue3){
                                                echo "$attributeskey2 = $attributesvalue3";
                                        }
                                        echo '<br />';
                                        //3 LEVELS BELOW ROOT TAG
                                        foreach($value3 as $key3 => $value4){
                                                echo "$key3: $value4";
                                                foreach($value4->attributes() as $attributeskey3 => $attributesvalue4){
                                                echo "$attributeskey3 = $attributesvalue4";
                                                }
                                                echo '<br />';
                                                //4 LEVELS BELOW ROOT TAG
                                                foreach($value4 as $key4 => $value5){
                                                        echo "$key4: $value5";
                                                        foreach($value5->attributes() as $attributeskey4 => $attributesvalue5){
                                                                echo "$attributeskey4 = $attributesvalue5";
                                                        }
                                                        echo '<br />';
                                                        //5 LEVELS BELOW ROOT TAG
                                                        foreach($value5 as $key5 => $value6){
                                                                echo "$key5: $value6";
                                                                foreach($value6->attributes() as $attributeskey5 => $attributesvalue6){
                                                                        echo "$attributeskey5 = $attributesvalue6";
                                                                }
                                                                echo '<br />';
                                                        }
                                                }
                                        }
                                }
                                echo '<br />';
                        }
                        echo '<br />';
                }

        }else{
                //need to create the XML file from scratch, do a curl function, or read from a text file
                echo "need a new version";
                //@unlink("$url);
        }
       
}else{
        echo "That file does not exist.<br/>";
}

?>

 

The error message I'm getting is this:

 

---

 

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "./xmlcache/http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2Fajaxian_1235523548.xml" in C:\wamp\www\reader\loadfeed.php on line 13

 

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in C:\wamp\www\reader\loadfeed.php on line 16

 

---

 

The second error is obviously thrown because the file doesn't get loaded.

 

I appreciate any help you gurus have to offer, and if you have any suggestions for the best way to load a fresh version that will be handled by the first else statement, I'm all ears.

 

Thanks guys!