[SOLVED] Loading XML using SimpleXML doesn't return attributes on some elements

Loading XML using SimpleXML doesn't return attributes on some elements

I have loaded an XML file using

simplexml_load_file($filePath,'SimpleXMLElement', LIBXML_NOCDATA);

And for most of the XML provided it works fine. However, for some of the elements in the XML the attributes are not converted into an '@attributes' array, and are instead missing form the output. Here's a sample:

<UI_DEFINITION>
<EDIT_PERMISSION>testPermission</EDIT_PERMISSION>
<DEFAULT_VALUES>
    <display>hidden</display>
    <css_class>generic_css_class</css_class>
    <title>{tag}</title>
    <type>string</type>
    <wrapper_format>{value}</wrapper_format>
    <full_path>false</full_path>
    <mandatory>false</mandatory>
    <edit_permission>testPermission</edit_permission>
    <max_length>0</max_length>
</DEFAULT_VALUES>
<LOOKUPS>
    <DB_LOOKUP name="test3">
        <VIEW>???</VIEW>
        <ID_FIELD>???</ID_FIELD>
        <DESCR_FIELD>???</DESCR_FIELD>
        <ORDER>??? asc</ORDER>
    </DB_LOOKUP>
    <DB_LOOKUP name="test1">
        <VIEW>???</VIEW>
        <ID_FIELD>???</ID_FIELD>
        <DESCR_FIELD>???</DESCR_FIELD>
        <ORDER>??? asc</ORDER>
    </DB_LOOKUP>
</LOOKUPS>
<AREA internal_name="main_details" title="" display="show">
    <FIELD lookup="test1" title="Title">Title</FIELD>
    <FIELD title="Name">Given_Name</FIELD>
    <FIELD title="Mid. Name(s)">Middle_Names</FIELD>
    <FIELD title="Family Name">Family_Name</FIELD>
    <FIELD title="Gender">Gender</FIELD>
    <FIELD title="Born" type="date">Date_of_Birth</FIELD>
    <FIELD max_length="20" title="ID">Unique_Identifier</FIELD>
</AREA>

This gives the following output from print_r (I've added a line break at the bit that's the problem):

SimpleXMLElement Object ( [UI_DEFINITION] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [EDIT_PERMISSION] => testPermission [DEFAULT_VALUES] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [display] => hidden [css_class] => generic_css_class [title] => {tag} [type] => string [wrapper_format] => {value} [full_path] => false [mandatory] => false [edit_permission] => testPermission [max_length] => 0 ) [LOOKUPS] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [DB_LOOKUP] => Array ( [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [@attributes] => Array ( [name] => test3 ) [VIEW] => ??? [ID_FIELD] => ??? [DESCR_FIELD] => ??? [ORDER] => ??? asc ) [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [@attributes] => Array ( [name] => test1 ) [VIEW] => ??? [ID_FIELD] => ??? [DESCR_FIELD] => ??? [ORDER] => ??? asc ) ) ) 
[AREA] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [@attributes] => Array ( [internal_name] => main_details [title] => [display] => show ) [FIELD] => Array ( [0] => Title [1] => Given_Name [2] => Middle_Names [3] => Family_Name [4] => Gender [5] => Date_of_Birth [6] => Unique_Identifier ) ) ) )

As you can see, the attributes array is correctly added to most of the elements, but not to the FIELD elements. I've tried renaming them and it didn't seem to make a difference.

EDIT: I should also add that I've tried surrounding the FIELD tags with a FIELDS tag, also to no avail.

EDIT:

I've simplified the XML hugely, and it still doesn't return anny attributes:

<UI_DEFINITION>
                            <FIELD lookup="test1" title="Title">Title</FIELD>
                    </UI_DEFINITION>

produces:

SimpleXMLElement Object ( [UI_DEFINITION] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [FIELD] => Title ) )

Solution

Sorry it's taken so long to come back and answer this question!

As MrCode suggested, the attributes were accessible. The problem I was in the serialisation of the SimpleXML object into another format. Using printr or json_convert on the while object resulted in the attributes not being available in the cases reported.

I didn't go far enough into this to find a code-based workaround for printing or converting these objects including the problematic cases, I simply worked around it as part of the XML data:

<UI_DEFINITION>
        <FIELD lookup="test1" title="Title"><VALUEPATH>Title</VALUEPATH></FIELD>
 </UI_DEFINITION>

Addint this extra level into the hierarchy resulted in the attributes being preserved at the top level, and the text value being available correctly at the sub-level.