REST API for Categories

I am trying to write a PHP script to pull all of the categories for SDP that are not deleted.

I need PHP to create another XML feed that looks something similar to:

<category>Primary Category 1</category>

Sub Category 1

Sub Category 2

<category>Primary Category 2</category>

<category>Primary Category 3</category>

Sub Category 1

Sub Category 2

and so on

I know how to make the XML but I am having trouble parsing through the SDP XML with PHP.

My script is this:

<?php

function getMEXML($url, $operationName, $techKey){

//set POST variables

$fields_string = '';

$fields = array(

'OPERATION_NAME' => urlencode($operationName),

'TECHNICIAN_KEY' => urlencode($techKey)

);

//url-ify the data for the POST

foreach($fields as $key=>$value) { $fields_string .= $key.'='.$value.'&'; }

rtrim($fields_string, '&');

//open connection

$ch = curl_init();

//set the url, number of POST vars, POST data

curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL, $url);

curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POST, count($fields));

curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields_string);

//execute post

$result = curl_exec($ch);

//close connection

curl_close($ch);

return $result;

}

$cats = simplexml_load_string(getMEXML("http://manageengine.domain.com/sdpapi/admin/category/","GET_ALL","techKey"));

foreach ($cats->record as $recordInfo){

foreach ($recordInfo->parameter as $parameter){

if ($parameter->name == "name"){

echo $parameter->value;

echo " ";

}

When executing this code this is the error I get:

Warning: simplexml_load_string(): Entity: line 1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found in /var/www/html/testbed/index.php on line 32 Warning: simplexml_load_string(): 1 in /var/www/html/testbed/index.php on line 32 Warning: simplexml_load_string(): ^ in /var/www/html/testbed/index.php on line 32 Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in /var/www/html/testbed/index.php on line 33 Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/testbed/index.php on line 33

My questions is this:

Has anyone ever thought to try and get the categories from SDP using PHP? If so could you share your code?

We have built a windows app for our agents on the floor to use to file a ticket (submit a request). I don't want to have to manually type the categories all of the time and would like to programmatically do it.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

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