Converting between PHP and XML

When considering a conversion between PHP native data types and XML, we would normally consider an array as the primary target. With this in mind, the process of converting from a PHP array to XML differs radically from the approach needed to do the reverse.

Note

Objects could also be considered for conversion; however, it is difficult to render object methods in XML. Properties can be represented, however, by using the get_object_vars() function, which reads object properties into an array.

How to do it...

1. First, we define an Application\Parse\ConvertXml class. This class will holdthe methods that will convert from XML to a PHP array, and vice versa. We will need both the SimpleXMLElement and SimpleXMLIterator classes from the SPL:

   namespace Application\Parse;
   use SimpleXMLIterator;
   use SimpleXMLElement;
   class ConvertXml
   {
   }

2. Next, we define a xmlToArray() method that will accept a SimpleXMLIterator instance as an argument. It will be called recursively and will...