使用属性作为选择器的XML数据

Question

How can I return the '3' in:

<element type="forecast_icon_code">3</element>

from this external xml:

ftp://ftp2.bom.gov.au/anon/gen/fwo/IDV10450.xml

Here is my function:

function state($Sitelink) {

$url = $Sitelink;

$file = $url;
if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file))
exit('Failed to open '.$file);

$result = $xml->forecast->forcast-period->element;
print_r($result);
}

Calling the function using:

state("ftp://ftp2.bom.gov.au/anon/gen/fwo/IDV10450.xml")

Answer 1

You need some xpath action.

How extract XML data using PHP

Has an example using the same XML data that should give you a start.

Answer 2

I found that SimpleXMLElement has some trouble parsing elements with hyphens in the middle like you have above in "forcast-period".

I found myself in a similar situation and solved it using xpath.

Refer to the following resource and check usage for SimpleXMLElement::xpath():

SimpleXMLElement xpath doc