Using wp_remote_get to work with XML in WordPress

Question

I suspect I'm missing something really basic and obvious, so apologies in advance! I had been using `simple_xml_load` to work with an XML file, but my client's hosting provider blocks the loading of external files through this method. I'm now trying to rebuild my work using the `wp_remote_get` function built into WordPress. Here's my code (note: the key and shelter ID are generic in this example): ``` $url = "http://api.petfinder.com/shelter.getPets?key=1234&count=20&id=abcd&status=A&output=full"; $pf_xml = wp_remote_get( $url ); $xml = wp_remote_retrieve_body($pf_xml); ``` Using this, I can retrieve an array of all the data I need, but I cannot figure out how to target specific data. Here is what's output from `print_r($xml)`: ```

0.1 2013-03-09T15:03:46Z 100

Accepted Answer

Your code so far does retrieve the XML as string:

```
$url      = "http://api.petfinder.com/shelter.getPets?key=1234&count=20&id=abcd&status=A&output=full";
$response = wp_remote_get($url);
$body     = wp_remote_retrieve_body($response);
```

To load a string (instead of a URL) into a `SimpleXMLElement` as you did before with `simplexml_load_file` (you didn't show the concrete code so I assume you did it this way based on your description) you now need to load the string with `simplexml_load_string` instead:

```
$xml  = simplexml_load_string($body);
$code = $xml->header->status->code;
```

I slightly changed your variable names (especially with the `wp_remote_*` functions) to make it more clear for what those variables carry.

Using wp_remote_get to work with XML in WordPress

Solution

Problem