too long

Question

I use PHP's simplexml_load_file() function to call an API that returns changed results based on a Timestamp that I send.

So the API will return only results that have changed since my Timestamp. The problem I am having is if the timestamp is too soon and there are no results for the API to return, then it does not return a proper XML file, instead it will just return a blank page.

This is causing all sorts of problems with simplexml_load_file

Here is a simple test I can run...

$xml = 'http://api.rescuegroups.org/rest/?key=CZivWWGD&type=orgs&limit=300&updatedAfter=1361941202&startPage=1';

$xmlObj = new SimpleXMLElement($xml, NULL, TRUE);

This results in...

Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): http://api.rescuegroups.org/rest/?key=CZivWWGD&type=orgs&limit=300&updatedAfter=1361941202&startPage=1:1: parser error : Document is empty in E:\Server\htdocs\labs\freelance\dogAPI\testorg.php on line 9

Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): in E:\Server\htdocs\labs\freelance\dogAPI\testorg.php on line 9

Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): ^ in E:\Server\htdocs\labs\freelance\dogAPI\testorg.php on line 9

Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): http://api.rescuegroups.org/rest/?key=CZivWWGD&type=orgs&limit=300&updatedAfter=1361941202&startPage=1:1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found in E:\Server\htdocs\labs\freelance\dogAPI\testorg.php on line 9

Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): in E:\Server\htdocs\labs\freelance\dogAPI\testorg.php on line 9

Warning: SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): ^ in E:\Server\htdocs\labs\freelance\dogAPI\testorg.php on line 9

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'String could not be parsed as XML' in E:\Server\htdocs\labs\freelance\dogAPI\testorg.php:9 Stack trace: #0 E:\Server\htdocs\labs\freelance\dogAPI\testorg.php(9): SimpleXMLElement->__construct('http://api.resc...', 0, true) #1 {main} thrown in E:\Server\htdocs\labs\freelance\dogAPI\testorg.php on line 9

Now if I pass the API a Timestamp that is further back where there are results, then it will return a perfect XML document.

I am looking for a way to possibly prevent this nasty error from happening somehow?

Answer 1

$xml = @simplexml_load_file('http://api.rescuegroups.org/rest/?key=CZivWWGD&type=orgs&limit=300&updatedAfter=1361941202&startPage=1');
if(false !== $xml)
{
    // Do anything with xml
}

If there an errors @ hide it and return false