XPath query returning 'false' in SimpleXML

Question

I have an xml fragment as such:

<meta_tree type="root">
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Content Provider</meta_cat>
        <data>Mammoth</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Genre</meta_cat>
        <data>Games</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Channel Name</meta_cat>
        <data>Games Trailers</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Collection</meta_cat>
        <data>Strategy</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Custom 1</meta_cat>
        <data>PC</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>DRM Protected</meta_cat>
        <data>N</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Aspect Ratio</meta_cat>
        <data>16:9</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Streaming Type</meta_cat> 
        <data>VOD</data>
    </meta_data>
</meta_tree>

which I garnered from the snippet of $meta_tree->asXML() .

So given that, I need to have an xpath query for each element, so I'm using:

$meta_tree->xpath("/meta_data[meta_cat='Content Provider']");

but this returns false.

I have tried:

• /meta_tree/meta_data[meta_cat='Content Provider']
• //meta_data[meta_cat='Content Provider']
• meta_data[meta_cat='Content Provider'] (this returns an array, but the array is empty)

I've been using AquaPath , which validates my query, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Anyone got any ideas?

DJS.

EDIT: As per Tolomak's suggestion, here's some more info.

The element is a fragment of a larger doc, as follows (names have been replaced with *** to protect the innocent):

<contents total_items="1" xmlns="http://rxml.***.com" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://rxml.***.com/xsd/*Ingestion.xsd ">
     <content item_id="451195">
         ...
         <meta_tree type="root">
             ... see snippet above ...
         </meta_tree>
    </content>
</contents>

I retrieve the fragment above by:

$dom = new SimpleXMLElement(... xml_string ... );
foreach($dom->content as $content)
{
    $contentMetadata = $this->getMetadata($content->meta_tree)
}

public function getMetadata($meta_tree)
{
    echo $meta_tree->asXML();
}

ANSWER: problem was the default namespace. I have chosen to strip them out rather than deal with the namespace, unless anyone knows how to register the xmlns default namespace in SimpleXMLElement.

Answer 1

Problem was the default namespace. I have chosen to strip them out rather than deal with the namespace, unless anyone knows how to register the xmlns default namespace in SimpleXMLElement.

Answer 2

try

$meta_tree->xpath("meta_data[meta_cat='Content Provider']")

eg

<?php
$meta_tree = new SimpleXMLElement(getData());
$foo = $meta_tree->xpath("meta_data[meta_cat='Content Provider']");
var_dump($foo);

function getData() {
  return '<meta_tree type="root">
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Content Provider</meta_cat>
        <data>Mammoth</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Genre</meta_cat>
        <data>Games</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Channel Name</meta_cat>
        <data>Games Trailers</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Collection</meta_cat>
        <data>Strategy</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Custom 1</meta_cat>
        <data>PC</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>DRM Protected</meta_cat>
        <data>N</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Aspect Ratio</meta_cat>
        <data>16:9</data>
    </meta_data>
    <meta_data>
        <meta_cat>Streaming Type</meta_cat> 
        <data>VOD</data>
    </meta_data>
  </meta_tree>';
}

prints

array(1) {
  [0]=>
  object(SimpleXMLElement)#2 (2) {
    ["meta_cat"]=>
    string(16) "Content Provider"
    ["data"]=>
    string(7) "Mammoth"
  }
}