returning a XML response with CURL

Question

I am passing some parameters via HTTP POST to a webserver.

I am getting a response, but ideally I want a full XML responses, whereas I seem to be only getting a concatenated string. I've tried SimpleXMLElement, but it doesn't seem to do anything, and it isn't returning any XML.

Below is my code:

$post_string = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" ?> 
<ChameleonIAPI>
  <Method>TitleList</Method> 
  <APIKey>D12E9CF3-F742-47FC-97CB-295F4488C2FA</APIKey> 
  <UserName>David</UserName>
  <Filter>
  </Filter>
</ChameleonIAPI>';

$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL,"https://jobs.chameleoni.com/PostXML/PostXml.aspx");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,
        "Action=postxml&AuthKey=Guest&AuthPassword=KgwLLm7TL6G6&Xml=$post_string");

// receive server response ...
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION,true);

$server_output = curl_exec ($ch);

echo $server_output." TEST <br />";
curl_close ($ch);

$oXML = new SimpleXMLElement($server_output);

foreach($oXML->entry as $oEntry){
  echo $oEntry->title . "\n";
}

Here's the page which you can even test the POST and XML.

https://jobs.chameleoni.com/PostXML/PostingXML.html

My XML seems to be ok, as it works on the test page. I assume there is something wrong with my PHP, although I have no idea what that is!

Any help would be lovely!

Solution

Your code retrieve full XML, to see it write:

echo htmlentities( $server_output );
die();

and in the browser you'll see:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" ?> <ChameleonIAPIResponse>

<Titles><TitleId>1</TitleId><Title></Title><TitleId>6</TitleId><Title>Mr</Title><TitleId>2</TitleId><Title>Mrs</Title><TitleId>3</TitleId><Title>Miss</Title><TitleId>4</TitleId><Title>Ms</Title><TitleId>5</TitleId><Title>Dr</Title><TitleId>43</TitleId><Title>Sir</Title></Titles> </ChameleonIAPIResponse>

The problem is that the browser interpret your output as HTML, so the tag are hidden (see at the browser page source, and you will find your complete XML).

In addition, to send XML as XML, before you have to send appropriate headers:

header( 'Content-type: text/xml' );
echo $server_output;
die();

No other output before and after above code, otherwise your XML will result broken.

If you prefer SimpleXML, you can do this:

$oXML = new SimpleXMLElement( $server_output );
header( 'Content-type: text/xml' );
echo $oXML->asXML();
die();

Also in this case, no output before and after (So comment previous lines).

Comments

[Jack Gleeman]

Just edited, but the output was: string(374) " 16234543 " Not the XML format?

[Jack Gleeman]

Thanks. I could Echo the XML as you said, but when trying to create the XML I got a server 500 error? With this? Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'String could not be parsed as XML' in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/curl2.php:37 Stack trace: #0 /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/curl2.php(37): SimpleXMLElement->__construct('<?xml version="...') #1 {main} thrown in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/curl2.php on line 37

[Alex Andrei]

make sure to run exactly the code in your initial question and my answer, I just made a quick sample and received correct output. I have no idea where that output can come from.

[fusion3k]

You have to pass to SimpleXMLElement the $server_output value, not the htmlentities converted. Also it seems that the server output a malformed XML: “Error: Document labelled UTF-16 but has UTF-8” utf-16 is your choice or server default?

[fusion3k]

No, the problem is in chameleoni.com response, not in your mac

[fusion3k]

@JackGleeman Dirty solution, but I have tested and it works for me: $server_output = preg_replace('/(<\?xml[^?]+?)utf-16/i', '$1utf-8', $server_output); $oXML = new SimpleXMLElement($server_output); (copied from here). Stay connected, if I found better way, I will post it

[fusion3k]

I realize that camaleoni.com is you, right? You can't directly change output encoding to utf-8?

[Jack Gleeman]

Chameleon is not me, it's the API I have to work with :(

[Jack Gleeman]

That's worked. Dude, you're a legend. Marking your answer as right.