Displaying SOAP API results in PHP

Question

I've had some difficulty finding resources on this, to connect to a SOAP API using PHP and easily attach the array results to variables for display purposes.

Here is the SOAP API XML of GetCostCenters function within the API:

<Response><Status><Result>1</Result><Description>OK</Description></Status><CostCenters><CostCenter><ID>4</ID><Branch>Adelaide</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>6</ID><Branch>Derby</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>33</ID><Branch>GT Perth</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>7</ID><Branch>Hobart Branch</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>46</ID><Branch>Lawns & Maintenance</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>10</ID><Branch>London</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>3</ID><Branch>Melbourne</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>45</ID><Branch>NECA Apprentices</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>17</ID><Branch>New York</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>48</ID><Branch>Nursing NSW</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>1</ID><Branch>Perth</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>44</ID><Branch>Registration</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>16</ID><Branch>Rio</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>50</ID><Branch>Subiaco</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>51</ID><Branch>Subiaco</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>2</ID><Branch>Sydney</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>42</ID><Branch>test - tester</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>49</ID><Branch>TesterOM</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>8</ID><Branch>Tom Price</Branch></CostCenter><CostCenter><ID>47</ID><Branch>Traffic Control NSW</Branch></CostCenter></CostCenters></Response>

Here is my PHP:

    $client = new SoapClient("https://api.myfeed.com/feed.asmx?WSDL", array(
    'features' => SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS,
    'trace'    => true
 ));

// GET RESULTS
    $result = $client->GetCostCenters(array(
        'CompanyID'     => 'MYID',
        'APIKey'     => 'MYKEY',
        'APIPassword' => 'MYPASS',
        'features'  =>  SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS,
        'trace' =>  true
    ));

    echo '<pre>';
    print_r($result);
    echo '</pre>';

Outputs it all on one line in [any] like this:

stdClass Object
(
    [GetCostCentersResult] => stdClass Object
        (
            [any] => 1OK4Adelaide6Derby33GT Perth7Hobart Branch46Lawns & Maintenance10London3Melbourne45NECA Apprentices17New York48Nursing NSW1Perth44Registration16Rio50Subiaco51Subiaco2Sydney42test - tester49TesterOM8Tom Price47Traffic Control NSW
        )

)

and I can't figure out why, ideally I want it as an array so I can assign variables and run a loop to display the information.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Convert the result from string to xml object (simplexml_load_string):

$resultAsXml = simplexml_load_string($result);

Then convert the object to array using the json encoding (json_encode, json_decode):

$resultAsArray = json_decode(json_encode($resultAsXml), true);

Note the second argument passed to json_decode:

When true, JSON objects will be returned as associative arrays;

In your case:

$client = new SoapClient("https://api.myfeed.com/feed.asmx?WSDL", array(
    'features' => SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS,
    'trace'    => true
));

// GET RESULTS
$result = $client->GetCostCenters(array(
    'CompanyID'     => 'MYID',
    'APIKey'     => 'MYKEY',
    'APIPassword' => 'MYPASS',
    'features'  =>  SOAP_SINGLE_ELEMENT_ARRAYS,
    'trace' =>  true
));

$resultAsXml = simplexml_load_string($result);
$resultAsArray = json_decode(json_encode($resultAsXml), true);

echo '<pre>';
print_r($resultAsArray);
echo '</pre>';