Converting XML data to ISO-8859-1 for API call POST data

Question

I've got XML data that I'm using to post to the idibu API (job board API in the UK). I've done a successful call with their test POST data. Here it is:

xml_text=%3C%3Fxml+version%3D%221.0%22+encoding%3D%22UTF-8%22%3F%3E%0D%0A%3Cidibu%3E%0D%0A%3Cmethod%3Eadd%3C%2Fmethod%3E%0D%0A%3Cconfig%3E%0D%0A%3Cshow_durations%3Eno%3C%2Fshow_durations%3E%0D%0A%3Ccompletionurl%3Eemail%3C%2Fcompletionurl%3E%0D%0A%3Cadvertcompletionemail%3Ebob%40bob.com%3C%2Fadvertcompletionemail%3E%0D%0A%3Clockboards%3Eyes%3C%2Flockboards%3E%0D%0A%3Credirecturl%3Ehttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com+%3C%2Fredirecturl%3E%0D%0A%3Cvalidate_level%3Ewarning%3C%2Fvalidate_level%3E%0D%0A%3C%2Fconfig%3E%0D%0A%3Cjob%3E%0D%0A%3Ctitle%3E%3C%21%5BCDATA%5BXML+v+3+test%2C+please+ignore+Special+%A3+%24+%26+%25+%40+%21+%3F+.+%2C+%3D+%29+%28+-+%3A+%3B+_+%2B+%27+%22+%80%5D%5D%3E%3C%2Ftitle%3E%0D%0A%3Creference%3EABC123456789%3C%2Freference%3E%0D%0A%3Cdescription%3E%3C%21%5BCDATA%5B%3Cb%3ESpecial+Te+%A3+%24+%26+%25+%40+%21+%3F+.+%2C+%3D+%29+%28+%2F+-+%3A+%3B+_+%2B+%27+%22+%27+here+euro+%80+%0D%0ABasic+Te+%A3+%24+%26+%25+%40+%21+%3F+.+%2C+%3D+%29+%28+%2F+-+%3A+%3B+_+%2B+%27+%22+%27+%80+%0D%0ASpecial+Te+%A3+%24+%26+%25+%40+%21+%3F+.+%2C+%3D+%29+%28+%2F+-+%3A+%3B+_+%2B+%27+%22+%27+%80+%0D%0A%0D%0A+%0D%0A+Special+Te+%A3+%24+%26+%25+%40+%21+%3F+.+%2C+%3D+%29+%28+%2F+-+%3A+%3B+_+%2B+%27+%22+%27+%80+%0D%0ABasic+Te+%A3+%24+%26+%25+%40+%21+%3F+.+%2C+%3D+%29+%28+%2F+-+%3A+%3B+_+%2B+%27+%22+%27+%80+%0D%0A%0D%0A+%96+%96+%92+%27+%95+++++++%2C+%09%2C+%95+%B7+%93+%94+%D8+%85+%A8+%A6+%27+%3A+%27+%83+%E1+%91+%BA+%A1+%A7+%E9+%D7+%87+%27+%3A+%27+%27+%C7+%BD+%84+h+%AE+%97+%AC+%83+%E1+%99%3C%2Fb%3E%5D%5D%3E%3C%2Fdescription%3E%0D%0A%3Csender%3E%0D%0A%3Cname%3ESteve%3C%2Fname%3E%0D%0A%3Clastname%3ERogers%3C%2Flastname%3E%0D%0A%3Cemail%3Etest%40mail.net%3C%2Femail%3E%0D%0A%3Ccompany%3EOne+World+Market%3C%2Fcompany%3E%0D%0A%3Cphone%3E44+%280%29+111-1111111%3C%2Fphone%3E%0D%0A%3Cwww%3Ehttp%3A%2F%2Fuk.idibu.com+%3C%2Fwww%3E%0D%0A%3Ccountry%3EUK%3C%2Fcountry%3E%0D%0A%3Cpostcode%3E020+1111+1111%3C%2Fpostcode%3E%0D%0A%3C%2Fsender%3E%0D%0A%3Ccategory+id%3D%2221%22+%2F%3E%0D%0A%3Clocation+id%3D%228%22+%2F%3E%0D%0A%3Csublocation+id%3D%22668%22+%2F%3E%0D%0A%3Cjobtype+id%3D%222%22+%2F%3E%0D%0A%3Cjob_time%3E2%3C%2Fjob_time%3E%0D%0A%3Cstartdate%3E2011-11-26%3C%2Fstartdate%3E%0D%0A%3Cduration%3EFull+time%3C%2Fduration%3E%0D%0A%3Csalarymin%3E20000%3C%2Fsalarymin%3E%0D%0A%3Csalarymax%3E25000%3C%2Fsalarymax%3E%0D%0A%3Csalaryper+value%3D%22annum%22+%2F%3E%0D%0A%3CsalaryOverride%3ESalary+override+test+test%3C%2FsalaryOverride%3E%0D%0A%3Ccurrency%3EGBP%3C%2Fcurrency%3E%0D%0A%3Cpublish%3E2011-11-26%3C%2Fpublish%3E%0D%0A%3Cposts%3E%0D%0A%3Cboard+id%3D%22517%22%3E%0D%0A%3Cextrafield+name%3D%22idibudts_cat%22%3E3%3C%2Fextrafield%3E%0D%0A%3Cduration+days%3D%227%22+%2F%3E%0D%0A%3C%2Fboard%3E%0D%0A%3C%2Fposts%3E%0D%0A%3C%2Fjob%3E%0D%0A%3C%2Fidibu%3E

I've been able to decode this into standard XML format here: http://coderstoolbox.net/string/#!encoding=url&action=decode&charset=us_ascii (paste the info into the top box). Below is what I get:

xml_text=<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<idibu>
<method>add</method>
<config>
<show_durations>no</show_durations>
<completionurl>email</completionurl>
<advertcompletionemail>bob@bob.com</advertcompletionemail>
<lockboards>yes</lockboards>
<redirecturl>http://www.google.com </redirecturl>
<validate_level>warning</validate_level>
</config>
<job>
<title><![CDATA[XML v 3 test, please ignore Special £ $ & % @ ! ? . , = ) ( - : ; _ + ' ' ]]></title>
<reference>ABC123456789</reference>
<description><![CDATA[<b>Special Te £ $ & % @ ! ? . , = ) ( / - : ; _ + ' ' ' here euro  
Basic Te £ $ & % @ ! ? . , = ) ( / - : ; _ + ' ' '  
Special Te £ $ & % @ ! ? . , = ) ( / - : ; _ + ' ' '  
Special Te £ $ & % @ ! ? . , = ) ( / - : ; _ + ' ' '  
Basic Te £ $ & % @ ! ? . , = ) ( / - : ; _ + ' ' '  '        ,    ,  ·   Ø  ¨ ¦ ' : '  á  º ¡ § é ×  ' : ' ' Ç ½  h ®  ¬  á </b>]]>        
</description>
<sender>
<name>Steve</name>
<lastname>Rogers</lastname>
<email>test@mail.net</email>
<company>One World Market</company>
<phone>44 (0) 111-1111111</phone>
<www>http://uk.idibu.com </www>
<country>UK</country>
<postcode>020 1111 1111</postcode>
</sender>
<category id='21' />
<location id='8' />
<sublocation id='668' />
<jobtype id='2' />
<job_time>2</job_time>
<startdate>2011-11-26</startdate>
<duration>Full time</duration>
<salarymin>20000</salarymin>
<salarymax>25000</salarymax>
<salaryper value='annum' />
<salaryOverride>Salary override test test</salaryOverride>
<currency>GBP</currency>
<publish>2011-11-26</publish>
<posts>
<board id='517'>
<extrafield name='idibudts_cat'>3</extrafield>
<duration days='7' />
</board>
</posts>
</job>
</idibu>

In interest of simplicity, I'm setting up the API data in the latter of the two formats (standard XML). For example, for the advertcompletionemail is would be:

echo "<advertcompletionemail>".$advert_email."</advertcompletionemail>";

The info has to be encode though in order to ultimately send it to the API once I'm done setting it up. The idibu documentation says it needs to be encoded as iso-8859-1 which is what I'm assuming the first block of code is. I've tried to set the whole XML data as a string ($str) and then run:

echo "htmlentities($str)";

OR

echo "htmlentities($str, ENT_QUOTE, ISO-8859-1);

But neither works. I also tried utf8_decode($str) (and utf8_encode($str) even though I was pretty sure that wasn't the right function) and it didn't work. Can anyone help me figure out how to encode this XML to the correct format? Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

I would use iconv You can read about it in the manual here: http://php.net/manual/en/book.iconv.php

If you know for sure that it's UTF-8 initially, you can run this function: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.iconv.php

iconv("UTF-8", "ISO-8859-1", $xml)

And send this to the API. It's strange the API would produce UTF-8, but require ISO-8859-1. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something though.