simplexml error handling php

Question

I am using the following code:

function GetTwitterAvatar($username){
$xml = simplexml_load_file("http://twitter.com/users/".$username.".xml");
$imgurl = $xml->profile_image_url;
return $imgurl;
}

function GetTwitterAPILimit($username, $password){
$xml = simplexml_load_file("http://$username:$[e-mail]/account/rate_limit_status.xml");
$left = $xml->{"remaining-hits"};
$total = $xml->{"hourly-limit"};
return $left."/".$total;
}

and getting these errors when the stream cannot connect:

Warning: simplexml_load_file(http://twitter.com/users/****.xml) [function.simplexml-load-file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 503 Service Unavailable

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "http://twitter.com/users/****.xml" 

Warning: simplexml_load_file(http://[e-mail]/account/rate_limit_status.xml) [function.simplexml-load-file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 503 Service Unavailable

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "http://***:***@twitter.com/account/rate_limit_status.xml"

How can I handle these errors so I can display a user friendly message instead of what is shown above?

Answer 1

This is an old question, but is still relevant today.

The correct way to handle exceptions when using the oop SimpleXMLElment is like so.

libxml_use_internal_errors(TRUE); // this turns off spitting errors on your screen
try {
  $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlStringOfData);
} catch (Exception $e) {
  // Do something with the exception, or ignore it.
}