How to parse CDATA HTML-content of XML using SimpleXML?

I once answered it but I don't find the answer any longer.

If you take a look at the string (simplified/beautified):

<content:encoded><![CDATA[
    <p>Lorem Ipsom</p>
    <p>
      <a href='laura-bertram-trance-gemini-145-1080.jpg' 
         title='&lt;br&gt;November 2012 calendar from 5.10 The Test&lt;br&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;</a>
    </p>]]>
</content:encoded>

You can see that you have HTML encoded inside the node-value of the <content:encoded> element. So first you need to obtain the HTML value, which you already do:

$html = $boo->children('content', true)->encoded;

Then you need to parse the HTML inside $html. With which libraries HTML parsing can be done with PHP is outlined in:

How to parse and process HTML/XML with PHP?

If you decide to use the more or less recommended DOMDocument for the job, you only need to get the attribute value of a certain element:

PHP DOMDocument getting Attribute of Tag

Or for its sister library SimpleXML you already use (so this is more recommended, see as well the next section):

How to get an attribute with SimpleXML?

In context of your question here the following tip:

You're using SimpleXML. DOMDocument is a sister-library, meaning you can interchange between the two so you don't need to learn a full new library.

For example, you can use only the HTML parsing feature of DOMDocument, but import it then into SimpleXML. This is useful, because SimpleXML does not support HTML parsing.

That works via simplexml_import_dom().

A simplified step-by-step example:

// get the HTML string out of the feed:
$htmlString = $boo->children('content', true)->encoded;

// create DOMDocument for HTML parsing:
$htmlParser = new DOMDocument();

// load the HTML:
$htmlParser->loadHTML($htmlString);

// import it into simplexml:
$html = simplexml_import_dom($htmlParser);

Now you can use $html as a new SimpleXMLElement that represents the HTML document. As your HTML chunks did not have any <body> tags, according to the HTML specification, they are put inside the <body> tag. This will allow you for example to access the href attribute of the first <a> inside the second <p> element in your example:#

// access the element you're looking for:
$href = $html->body->p[1]->a['href'];

Here the full view from above (Online Demo):

// get the HTML string out of the feed:
$htmlString = $boo->children('content', true)->encoded;

// create DOMDocument for HTML parsing:
$htmlParser = new DOMDocument();

// your HTML gives parser warnings, keep them internal:
libxml_use_internal_errors(true);

// load the HTML:
$htmlParser->loadHTML($htmlString);

// import it into simplexml:
$html = simplexml_import_dom($htmlParser);

// access the element you're looking for:
$href = $html->body->p[1]->a['href'];

// output it
echo $href, "\n";

And what it outputs:

laura-bertram-trance-gemini-145-1080.jpg

How to parse CDATA HTML-content of XML using SimpleXML?

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