Parsing XML with multiple namespaces

Question

So I wanted to parse this XML:

Answer 1

The poorly documented fact in play here is that when you select a namespace with ->children, it remains in effect for descendent nodes.

So when you ask for $sxe->children("soapenv", true)->Body->requestContactResponse, SimpleXML assumes you are still talking about the "soapenv" namespace, so is looking for the element <soapenv:requestContactResponse>, which doesn't exist.

To switch back to the default namespace, you need to call ->children again, with a NULL namespace:

$sx->children("soapenv", true)->Body->children(NULL)->requestContactResponse->requestContactReturn->id