How to convert array to SimpleXML

Question

How can I convert an array to a SimpleXML object in PHP?

Answer 1

Another improvement:

/**
* Converts an array to XML
*
* @param array $array
* @param SimpleXMLElement $xml
* @param string $child_name
*
* @return SimpleXMLElement $xml
*/
public function arrayToXML($array, SimpleXMLElement $xml, $child_name)
{
    foreach ($array as $k => $v) {
        if(is_array($v)) {
            (is_int($k)) ? $this->arrayToXML($v, $xml->addChild($child_name), $v) : $this->arrayToXML($v, $xml->addChild(strtolower($k)), $child_name);
        } else {
            (is_int($k)) ? $xml->addChild($child_name, $v) : $xml->addChild(strtolower($k), $v);
        }
    }

    return $xml->asXML();
}

Usage:

$this->arrayToXML($array, new SimpleXMLElement('<root/>'), 'child_name_to_replace_numeric_integers');

Answer 2

Here's a function that did the trick for me:

Just call it with something like

echo arrayToXml("response",$arrayIWantToConvert);
function arrayToXml($thisNodeName,$input){
        if(is_numeric($thisNodeName))
            throw new Exception("cannot parse into xml. remainder :".print_r($input,true));
        if(!(is_array($input) || is_object($input))){
            return "<$thisNodeName>$input</$thisNodeName>";
        }
        else{
            $newNode="<$thisNodeName>";
            foreach($input as $key=>$value){
                if(is_numeric($key))
                    $key=substr($thisNodeName,0,strlen($thisNodeName)-1);
                $newNode.=arrayToXml3($key,$value);
            }
            $newNode.="</$thisNodeName>";
            return $newNode;
        }
    }

Answer 3

You could use the XMLParser that I have been working on.

$xml = XMLParser::encode(array(
    'bla' => 'blub',
    'foo' => 'bar',
    'another_array' => array (
        'stack' => 'overflow',
    )
));
// @$xml instanceof SimpleXMLElement
echo $xml->asXML();

Would result in:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
    <bla>blub</bla>
    <foo>bar</foo>
    <another_array>
        <stack>overflow</stack>
    </another_array>
</root>

Answer 4

IF the array is associative and keyed correctly, it would probably be easier to turn it into xml first. Something like:

  function array2xml ($array_item) {
    $xml = '';
    foreach($array_item as $element => $value)
    {
        if (is_array($value))
        {
            $xml .= "<$element>".array2xml($value)."</$element>";
        }
        elseif($value == '')
        {
            $xml .= "<$element />";
        }
        else
        {
            $xml .= "<$element>".htmlentities($value)."</$element>";
        }
    }
    return $xml;
}

$simple_xml = simplexml_load_string(array2xml($assoc_array));

The other route would be to create your basic xml first, like

$simple_xml = simplexml_load_string("<array></array>");

and then for each part of your array, use something similar to my text creating loop and instead use the simplexml functions "addChild" for each node of the array.

I'll try that out later and update this post with both versions.

Answer 5

the following deals with namespaces. In this case, you construct the wrapper to include the namespace definitions, and pass it into the function. use a colon to identify the namespace.

Test Array

$inarray = [];
$inarray['p:apple'] = "red";
$inarray['p:pear'] = "green";
$inarray['p:peach'] = "orange";
$inarray['p1:grocers'] = ['p1:local' => "cheap", 'p1:imported' => "expensive"];


$xml = new SimpleXMLElement( '<p:wrapper xmlns:p="http://namespace.org/api" xmlns:p1="http://namespace.org/api2 /> ');

array_to_xml($xml,$inarray); 




function array_to_xml(SimpleXMLElement $object, array $data)
{   
    $nslist = $object->getDocNamespaces();

    foreach ($data as $key => $value)
    {   
        $nspace = null;
        $keyparts = explode(":",$key,2);
        if ( count($keyparts)==2) 
            $nspace = $nslist[$keyparts[0]];

        if (is_array($value))
        {   
            $key = is_numeric($key) ? "item$key" : $key;
            $new_object = $object->addChild($key,null,$nspace);
            array_to_xml($new_object, $value);
        }   
        else
        {   
            $key = is_numeric($key) ? "item$key" : $key;
            $object->addChild($key, $value,$nspace);
        }   
    }   
}   

Answer 6

If you work in magento and you have this type of associative array

$test_array = array (
    '0' => array (
            'category_id' => '582',
            'name' => 'Surat',
            'parent_id' => '565',
            'child_id' => '567',
            'active' => '1',
            'level' => '6',
            'position' => '17'
    ),

    '1' => array (
            'category_id' => '567', 
            'name' => 'test',
            'parent_id' => '0',
            'child_id' => '576',
            'active' => '0',
            'level' => '0',
            'position' => '18'
    ),
);

then this is best to convert associative array to xml format.Use this code in controller file.

$this->loadLayout(false);
//header ("content-type: text/xml");
$this->getResponse()->setHeader('Content-Type','text/xml');
$this->renderLayout();

$clArr2xml = new arr2xml($test_array, 'utf-8', 'listdata');
$output = $clArr2xml->get_xml();
print $output; 

class arr2xml
{
var $array = array();
var $xml = '';
var $root_name = '';
var $charset = '';

public function __construct($array, $charset = 'utf-8', $root_name = 'root')
{
    header ("content-type: text/xml");
    $this->array = $array;
    $this->root_name = $root_name;
    $this->charset = $charset;

    if (is_array($array) && count($array) > 0) {
        $this->struct_xml($array);

    } else {
        $this->xml .= "no data";
    }
}

public function struct_xml($array)
{
    foreach ($array as $k => $v) {
        if (is_array($v)) {
            $tag = ereg_replace('^[0-9]{1,}', 'item', $k); // replace numeric key in array to 'data'
            $this->xml .= "<$tag>";
            $this->struct_xml($v);
            $this->xml .= "</$tag>";
        } else {
            $tag = ereg_replace('^[0-9]{1,}', 'item', $k); // replace numeric key in array to 'data'
            $this->xml .= "<$tag><![CDATA[$v]]></$tag>";
        }
    }
}

public function get_xml()
{

    $header = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"" . $this->charset . "\"?><" . $this->root_name . ">";
    $footer = "</" . $this->root_name . ">";

    return $header . $this->xml . $footer;
}
}

I hope it helps to all.