Handling errors with simplexml_load_file

[SF23103]

 I have an application that loads several xml files, and then outputs some of the data from the file.  The problem is that every once in a while, the service that provides the xml file does maintenance (or has an error in the file), and my application gives a "Fatal error:  Call to a member function children() on a non-object in..."

 

I would like to handle the error differently, by displaying "unavailable" instead of the error.  I know that this is usually not the appropriate way of handling errors, because there is a reason for a fatal error.

 

Any ideas on how to appropriately handle this error?

// Node 217 (GGB)
$xml = simplexml_load_file("http://services.my511.org/traffic/API_KEY_REMOVED_FOR_EXAMPLE");
foreach($xml->children() as $traveltime)
{
    $ggb = "$traveltime->currentTravelTime";
    } 

​echo "GGB:" , $ggb , " Minutes";

[Barand]

 

Return Values

Returns an object of class SimpleXMLElement with properties containing the data held within the XML document, or FALSE on failure.

[maxxd]

As Barand is suggesting, some simple error-checking can - and will - go a long way.