SimpleXML, Birds Eye View

XML is always been a pain to me. The way I learn the best is by looking at examples. Below is a script from a project that I was recently working on using php SimpleXML object. It shows an organize format of the XML file to serve as a road map

<?php
$xmlstr = <<<XML
<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?>
<movies>
 <movie page="0" numpages="38">
  <title>PHP: Behind the Parser</title>
  <characters>
   <character>
    <name>Ms. Coder</name>
    <actor>Onlivia Actora</actor>
   </character>
   <character>
    <name>Mr. Coder</name>
    <actor>El ActÓr</actor>
   </character>
  </characters>
  <plot>
   So, this language. It's like, a programming language. Or is it a
   scripting language? All is revealed in this thrilling horror spoof
   of a documentary.
  </plot>
  <great-lines>
   <line>PHP solves all my web problems</line>
  </great-lines>
  <rating type="thumbs">7</rating>
  <rating type="stars">5</rating>
 </movie>
</movies>
XML;



//Output
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr);

echo '<pre>';
print_r($xml->movie);
echo '</pre>';
echo 'Example:' . $xml->movie[0]->title;

?>

Script above will output

SimpleXMLElement Object
(
    [@attributes] => Array
        (
            [page] => 0
            [numpages] => 38
        )

    [title] => PHP: Behind the Parser
    [characters] => SimpleXMLElement Object
        (
            [character] => Array
                (
                    [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                        (
                            [name] => Ms. Coder
                            [actor] => Onlivia Actora
                        )

                    [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                        (
                            [name] => Mr. Coder
                            [actor] => El ActÓr
                        )

                )

        )

    [plot] => 
   So, this language. It's like, a programming language. Or is it a
   scripting language? All is revealed in this thrilling horror spoof
   of a documentary.
  
    [great-lines] => SimpleXMLElement Object
        (
            [line] => PHP solves all my web problems
        )

    [rating] => Array
        (
            [0] => 7
            [1] => 5
        )

)
Example:PHP: Behind the Parser

DOMDocument, accessing other sites HTML. Bypassing the Same Origin Policy

Below is a code that retrieves <a> tags from a webpage outside the server using the DOMDocument. A built in PHP class that retrieves HTML and XML from a webpage. Bypassing the Same Origin Policy. This is an alternative to cURL which downloads the entire HTML page.

$keywords = array();
$domain = array('http://bing.com');//select website to extract

$doc = new DOMDocument;
$doc->preserveWhiteSpace = FALSE;

foreach ($domain as $key => $value) {
    @$doc->loadHTMLFile($value); //Load HTML from a file
    $anchor_tags = $doc->getElementsByTagName('a'); //get <a> tags by accessing the DOM
    foreach ($anchor_tags as $tag) {
        $keywords[] = strtolower($tag->nodeValue);
    }
}
echo '
';
print_r ($keywords);
echo '
';