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Request #27709 SimpleXML: Add registerNamespace() method like in dom
Submitted: 2004-03-26 04:51 UTC Modified: 2004-08-27 10:25 UTC
From: fjortiz at comunet dot es Assigned:
Status: Closed Package: Feature/Change Request
PHP Version: 5.0RC3-dev OS: Irrelevant
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
View Developer Edit
 [2004-03-26 04:51 UTC] fjortiz at comunet dot es 
Description:
------------
Hi,

this example works with SimpleXML xpath:

$string = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding ="UTF-8" ?>
<a xmlns:ns="urn:1">
 <b>
  <c>text</c>
  <c>stuff</c>
 </b>
 <d>
  <c>code</c>
 </d>
</a>
XML;

$xml = simplexml_load_string($string);
$res = $xml->xpath('//a'); // returns array(1)

But if we don't use a namespace prefix (default namespace), xpath, returns an empty array, array(0), for any xpath search:

$string = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding ="UTF-8" ?>
<a xmlns="urn:1">
 <b>
  <c>text</c>
  <c>stuff</c>
 </b>
 <d>
  <c>code</c>
 </d>
</a>
XML;

$xml = simplexml_load_string($string);
$res = $xml->xpath('//a'); // returns array(0)

This is a simple example, I found the problem with a bigger XML file (a WSDL file). This WSDL has 5 namespaces defined, and no problem at all with SimpleXML, as long as you don't define a default namespace...

Thanks for your attention

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 [2004-03-26 08:09 UTC] rrichards@php.net 
Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

This is an XPath limitation.
You need to use an expression like //*[local-name() = 'a'] or dont use default namespaces.
 [2004-06-04 11:59 UTC] davey@php.net 
This *is* a bug, SimpleXML does not provide a registerNamespace() method like the DOM XPath implementation does. Without this, the XPath implementation in SimpleXML is crippled.

So its half a bug, and half a feature request. This *needs* to be added before 5.0 final IMO

The only way I can get this to workright now is:

$xml =<<<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<xml xmlns="http://bar">
    <child attribute="value1">
        <morechildren />
        <morechildren />
        <morechildren />
        <morechildren />
    </child>
</xml>
EOF;

$simple_xml = simplexml_load_string($xml);

// Add a namespace with the same URI as the default
$simple_xml['xmlns:bar'] = "http://bar";
// Reload the XML so the namespace is recognised
$simple_xml = simplexml_load_string($simple_xml->asXML());


- Davey
 [2004-06-07 09:45 UTC] chregu@php.net 
Or use the xpath expression recommended by Rob  "//
*[local-name() = 'a']". It's a feature request. 
Reclassified.
 [2004-08-27 10:25 UTC] chregu@php.net 
This bug has been fixed in CVS.

Snapshots of the sources are packaged every three hours; this change
will be in the next snapshot. You can grab the snapshot at
http://snaps.php.net/.
 
Thank you for the report, and for helping us make PHP better.

it's called
registerXPathNamespace()
 
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