gistfile1.txt

/**
 * Turn a simplexml document in simple array key/values
 */
function simplexml_to_array($xml) {
   $output = array();
   foreach($xml->children() as $tagname => $value) {    // recurse the child
       $child = simplexml_to_array($value); // if it's not an array, then it was empty, thus a value/string
       if( count($child) == 0 ) $child = (string)$value;
      
       foreach( $value->attributes() as $ak => $av ) { // add the childs attributes as if they where children
           if( !is_array( $child ) ) { // if the child is not an array, transform it into one
               $child = array( "name" => $child );
           }
           $child[$ak] = (string)$av;
       }
             
       if (!in_array($tagname,array_keys($output))) { // if the $tagname is already in our children list, we need to transform it into an array, else we add it as a value
           $output[$tagname] = $child;
       } elseif (@in_array(0,@array_keys($output[$tagname]))) {
           $output[$tagname][] = $child;
       } else {
           $output[$tagname] = array($output[$tagname]);
           $output[$tagname][] = $child;
       }
   }
   return $output;
}