Best way to parse RSS/Atom feeds with PHP

Php Problem Overview

I'm currently using Magpie RSS but it sometimes falls over when the RSS or Atom feed isn't well formed. Are there any other options for parsing RSS and Atom feeds with PHP?

Php Solutions

Solution 1 - Php

I've always used the SimpleXML functions built in to PHP to parse XML documents. It's one of the few generic parsers out there that has an intuitive structure to it, which makes it extremely easy to build a meaningful class for something specific like an RSS feed. Additionally, it will detect XML warnings and errors, and upon finding any you could simply run the source through something like HTML Tidy (as ceejayoz mentioned) to clean it up and attempt it again.

Consider this very rough, simple class using SimpleXML:

class BlogPost
{
    var $date;
    var $ts;
    var $link;

    var $title;
    var $text;
}

class BlogFeed
{
    var $posts = array();

    function __construct($file_or_url)
    {
        $file_or_url = $this->resolveFile($file_or_url);
        if (!($x = simplexml_load_file($file_or_url)))
            return;

        foreach ($x->channel->item as $item)
        {
            $post = new BlogPost();
            $post->date  = (string) $item->pubDate;
            $post->ts    = strtotime($item->pubDate);
            $post->link  = (string) $item->link;
            $post->title = (string) $item->title;
            $post->text  = (string) $item->description;

            // Create summary as a shortened body and remove images, 
            // extraneous line breaks, etc.
            $post->summary = $this->summarizeText($post->text);

            $this->posts[] = $post;
        }
    }

    private function resolveFile($file_or_url) {
        if (!preg_match('|^https?:|', $file_or_url))
            $feed_uri = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] .'/shared/xml/'. $file_or_url;
        else
            $feed_uri = $file_or_url;

        return $feed_uri;
    }

    private function summarizeText($summary) {
        $summary = strip_tags($summary);

        // Truncate summary line to 100 characters
        $max_len = 100;
        if (strlen($summary) > $max_len)
            $summary = substr($summary, 0, $max_len) . '...';

        return $summary;
    }
}

Solution 2 - Php

With 4 lines, I import a rss to an array.

$feed = implode(file('http://yourdomains.com/feed.rss'));
$xml = simplexml_load_string($feed);
$json = json_encode($xml);
$array = json_decode($json,TRUE);

For a more complex solution

$feed = new DOMDocument();
 $feed->load('file.rss');
 $json = array();
 $json['title'] = $feed->getElementsByTagName('channel')->item(0)->getElementsByTagName('title')->item(0)->firstChild->nodeValue;
 $json['description'] = $feed->getElementsByTagName('channel')->item(0)->getElementsByTagName('description')->item(0)->firstChild->nodeValue;
 $json['link'] = $feed->getElementsByTagName('channel')->item(0)->getElementsByTagName('link')->item(0)->firstChild->nodeValue;
 $items = $feed->getElementsByTagName('channel')->item(0)->getElementsByTagName('item');

 $json['item'] = array();
 $i = 0;

 foreach($items as $key => $item) {
 $title = $item->getElementsByTagName('title')->item(0)->firstChild->nodeValue;
 $description = $item->getElementsByTagName('description')->item(0)->firstChild->nodeValue;
 $pubDate = $item->getElementsByTagName('pubDate')->item(0)->firstChild->nodeValue;
 $guid = $item->getElementsByTagName('guid')->item(0)->firstChild->nodeValue;

 $json['item'][$key]['title'] = $title;
 $json['item'][$key]['description'] = $description;
 $json['item'][$key]['pubdate'] = $pubDate;
 $json['item'][$key]['guid'] = $guid; 
 }

echo json_encode($json);

Solution 3 - Php

Your other options include:

Solution 4 - Php

I would like introduce simple script to parse RSS:

$i = 0; // counter
$url = "http://www.banki.ru/xml/news.rss"; // url to parse
$rss = simplexml_load_file($url); // XML parser

// RSS items loop

print '<h2><img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="'.$rss->channel->image->url.'" /> '.$rss->channel->title.'</h2>'; // channel title + img with src

foreach($rss->channel->item as $item) {
if ($i < 10) { // parse only 10 items
    print '<a href="'.$item->link.'">'.$item->title.'</a><br />';
}

$i++;
}

Solution 5 - Php

If feed isn't well-formed XML, you're supposed to reject it, no exceptions. You're entitled to call feed creator a bozo.

Otherwise you're paving way to mess that HTML ended up in.

Solution 6 - Php

The HTML Tidy library is able to fix some malformed XML files. Running your feeds through that before passing them on to the parser may help.

Solution 7 - Php

I use SimplePie to parse a Google Reader feed and it works pretty well and has a decent feature set.

Of course, I haven't tested it with non-well-formed RSS / Atom feeds so I don't know how it copes with those, I'm assuming Google's are fairly standards compliant! :)

Solution 8 - Php

Personally I use BNC Advanced Feed Parser- i like the template system that is very easy to use

Solution 9 - Php

The PHP RSS reader - http://www.scriptol.com/rss/rss-reader.php - is a complete but simple parser used by thousand of users...

Solution 10 - Php

Another great free parser - http://bncscripts.com/free-php-rss-parser/ It's very light ( only 3kb ) and simple to use!

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	carson	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Php	Brian Cline	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Php	PJunior	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Php	Philip Morton	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Php	Vladimir Lukyanov	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Php	Kornel	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Php	ceejayoz	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Php	user7094	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Php	Adam	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - Php	Thinol	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - Php	Lucas	View Answer on Stackoverflow