Be careful checking for parse errors. An empty SimpleXMLElement may resolve to FALSE, and if your XML contains no text or only contains namespaced elements your error check may be wrong. Always use `=== FALSE` when checking for parse errors.
<?php
$xml = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ns1:Root xmlns:ns1="http://example.com/custom">
<ns1:Node>There's stuff here</ns1:Node>
</ns1:Root>
XML;
$simplexml = simplexml_load_string($xml);
// This prints "Parse Error".
echo ($simplexml ? 'Valid XML' : 'Parse Error'), PHP_EOL;
// But this prints "There's stuff here", proving that
// the SimpleXML object was created successfully.
echo $simplexml->children('http://example.com/custom')->Node, PHP_EOL;
// Use this instead:
echo ($simplexml !== FALSE ? 'Valid XML' : 'Parse Error'), PHP_EOL;
?>
See:
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=31045
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=30972
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=69596