php - xml data parsing

Question

I am working on getting some xml data into a php variable so I can easily call it in my html webpage. I am using this code below:

$ch      = curl_init();
$timeout = 5;

$url = "http://www.dictionaryapi.com/api/v1/references/collegiate/xml/define?key=0b03f103-f6a7-4bb1-9136-11ab4e7b5294";

$definition = simplexml_load_file($url);

echo $definition->entry[0]->def;

However my results are: .

I am not sure what I am doing wrong and I have followed the php manual, so I am guessing it is something obvious but I am just not understanding it correctly.

The actual xml results from that link used in cURL are visible by clicking the link below , I did not post it because it is rather long:

http://www.dictionaryapi.com/api/v1/references/sd3/xml/test?key=9d92e6bd-a94b-45c5-9128-bc0f0908103d

Answer 1

<?php
$ch = curl_init();
$timeout = 5;

$url = "http://www.dictionaryapi.com/api/v1/references/collegiate/xml/define?key=0b03f103-f6a7-4bb1-9136-11ab4e7b5294";
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
$data = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch); // you were missing a semicolon


$definition = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($definition->entry[0]->def);
echo '</pre>';

// this returns the SimpleXML Object


// to get parts, you can do something like this...
foreach($definition->entry[0]->def[0] as $entry) {
    echo $entry[0] . "<br />";
}

// which returns

transitive verb
14th century
1 a
:to determine or identify the essential qualities or meaning of 
b
:to discover and set forth the meaning of (as a word)
c
:to create on a computer 
2 a
:to fix or mark the limits of : 
b
:to make distinct, clear, or detailed especially in outline 
3
: 
intransitive verb
:to make a 

Working Demo