Load XML string from $_POST array

Question

I receive a $_POST array from a system after a certain action has been performed on a database. I've tried accesing the array and saving it as an simple_xml object. So far I have not succeeded. The array which is being sent looks like this.

Array
(
     [xml] => <?xml version=\"1.0\"?>
     <callback><profile><id>313009</id><fields><email>tomkriek@gmail.com</email><nieuwsbrief>8</nieuwsbrief></fields><interests></interests></profile><action>update</action><parameters><nieuwsbrief>8</nieuwsbrief></parameters></callback>
)

I've tried storing this as a simple_xml object like this.

if($xml_test = simplexml_load_string($_POST['xml']))
{
    $xml_test->saveXML('test.xml');
}

I can save a different kind of .xml file so I'm sure the permissions are set right. As for the rest I'm not that familiar with formatting and parsing .xml files so I hope anyone could help a hand with this.

My desired outcome is that I can access the newly made simple_xml object and access the values and fields.

Answer 1

Need to stripslashes():

$string = stripslashes($_POST['xml']);

if($xml_test = simplexml_load_string($string))
{
    $xml_test->saveXML('test.xml');
}

It would be better to turn off magic_quotes_gpc in php.ini:

Answer 2

saveXML() will write out the XML into the file. If you want to access the XML elements you will need to do so by doing something like

    $action = $xml_test->action;
    echo $action;

You can try printing out the simplexml object so you can see its structure of it by doing

    print_r($xml_test);