How to get specific value in PHP from external URL

Question

I am trying to get specific value from an external URL. Somehow I'm stuck now. Please somebody see and help.

I am trying to do this with new DOMDocument();

<?php
    $html = file_get_contents('https://someurl.com');
    $dom = new DOMDocument();
    libxml_use_internal_errors(true);

    $dom->loadHTML($html);
    $xpath = new DOMXPath($dom);

    $elements = $xpath->query("//div[@id='post']");
    $maindata = $elements[1];


    echo $maindata->nodeValue;
?>

Now see the structure of HTML file on target URL

<div id="post" align="left">
    <ul>
        <li>
            <a>some content</a>
        </li>
    </ul>
</div>

<div id="post" align="left">
    <ul>
        <li>
            <a>some content</a>
        </li>
        <li>
            <a>Targeted Content</a>
        </li>
    </ul>
</div>

<div id="post" align="left">
    <ul>
        <li>
            <a>some content</a>
        </li>
    </ul>
</div>

When I tried to get this from an array, it gave me the entire div value (some content Targeted content). I need only targeted content.

have you tried this? //div[@id='post']/ul/li[2] what's the criteria of "Target content"? — Ed Bangga
– Ed Bangga, Commented Jun 27, 2019 at 2:58
The html you posted is invalid as it has multiple div's with id "post". — Bram Verstraten
– Bram Verstraten, Commented Jun 27, 2019 at 6:13
"I think we have only option to get it with array"....that doesn't stop you from using a more precise xPath query as per the suggestion. But yes you will have another problem because it may not like the invalid duplicate IDs — ADyson
– ADyson, Commented Jun 27, 2019 at 6:21

Bram Verstraten · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-27 06:24:00Z

1

Try the following:

<?php
$html = file_get_contents('https://someurl.com');
$dom = new DOMDocument();
libxml_use_internal_errors(true);

$dom->loadHTML($html);
$xpath = new DOMXPath($dom);

$elements = $xpath->query("//div[@id='post']/ul/li[2]/a");
$values = [];
foreach ($elements as $element) {
    $values[] = $element->textContent;
}

print_r($values);

answered Jun 27, 2019 at 6:24

Bram Verstraten

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