Simplexml XPath strangeness
Question
I'm writing a script which reads and manipulates a KML (xml) document. Below is a snippet of the document I'm reading:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Generated by Feature Manipulation Engine 2009 (Build 5658) -->
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.2" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<Document>
<name>South Australia</name>
<visibility>1</visibility>
<description><![CDATA[Statistical Local Area 2008]]></description>
<Folder id="kml_ft_SA_SLA08">
<name>SA_SLA08</name>
<Placemark id="kml_1">
<name>Mitcham (C) - West</name>
<Style>
<!-- style info blah blah -->
</Style>
<Polygon>
<!-- blah blah -->
</Polygon>
</Placemark>
<!-- snip lots more Placemarks -->
</Folder>
</Document>
</kml>
The problem I'm having is with using XPath to select anything from it!
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->load('myfile.xml'); // returns true
$xp = new DOMXPath($doc);
$places = $xp->query("//Placemark");
echo $places->length; // --> 0 ??!!??
$everything = $xp->query("//*"); // (so I know that the XPath isn't fully borked)
echo $everything->length; // --> 2085
What's going on here?
Solution
<?php
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->load('file.xml'); // returns true
$xp = new DOMXPath($doc);
$xp->registerNamespace('ge', 'http://earth.google.com/kml/2.2');
$places = $xp->query("//ge:Placemark");
echo $places->length; // --> 0 ??!!??
$everything = $xp->query("//*"); // (so I know that the XPath isn't fully borked)
//echo $doc->saveXML();
Apparently you have to register the 'ge' namespace and query it as such, at least this is what I came up with after a few minutes googling. I guess sometimes we forget we're dealing with namespaces :p
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