# XML parsing issue **URL:** \ **Category:** Dev/API Corner\ **Tags:** plugin-dev\ **Created:** [August 12, 2014, 11:16am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/xml-parsing-issue/73461 "2014-08-12T11:16:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![papalozarou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c6cbf5/32.png) [@papalozarou](https://forums.plex.tv/u/papalozarou)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 11:16am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/xml-parsing-issue/73461/1 "2014-08-12T11:16:30Z")
I'm accessing an XML file which contains a channel list.   The list is in the following format: ``` Channel Name http://path/to/video.m3u8 ``` My code looks like this: ``` XML_SOURCE = HTML.ElementFromURL(XML_URL, headers = CUSTOM_HEADERS) ``` CHANNELS = XML_SOURCE.xpath("//item") for CHANNEL in CHANNELS: CHANNEL_NAME = "".join(CHANNEL.xpath("./title/text()")) CHANNEL_URL = "".join(CHANNEL.xpath("./link/text()")) Log(CHANNEL_NAME) Log(CHANNEL_URL) return CHANNEL_LIST ``` ``` My problem is that I can't get the value in link. I can get title just fine.   I also tried using ./\*[local-name()='link']/text() but that gives me nothing as well.   When I try  XML.ElementFromURL(XML\_URL) instead of HTML.ElementFromURL, I get the following error: ``` 2014-08-12 13:04:38,837 (10addd000) : CRITICAL (runtime:883) - Exception (most recent call last): File "/Users/loz/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/Framework.bundle/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/Framework/components/runtime.py", line 843, in handle_request result = f(**d) File "/Users/loz/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/Framework.bundle/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/Framework/handlers/base.py", line 119, in call result = self.func(*args, **kwargs) File "/Users/loz/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/PremierAdLive.bundle/Contents/Code/ __init__.py", line 62, in MainMenu CHANNEL_LIST = GetChannelList() File "/Users/loz/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/PremierAdLive.bundle/Contents/Code/ __init__.py", line 115, in GetChannelList XML_SOURCE = XML.ElementFromURL(XML_URL) File "/Users/loz/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/Framework.bundle/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/Framework/api/parsekit.py", line 345, in ElementFromURL ).content, encoding=encoding, max_size=max_size) File "/Users/loz/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/Framework.bundle/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/Framework/api/parsekit.py", line 301, in ElementFromString return self._core.data.xml.from_string(string, encoding = encoding) File "/Users/loz/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins/Framework.bundle/Contents/Resources/Versions/2/Python/Framework/components/data.py", line 162, in from_string return etree.fromstring(markup, parser=(xml_parser if remove_blank_text else None)) File "lxml.etree.pyx", line 2743, in lxml.etree.fromstring (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:52665) File "parser.pxi", line 1573, in lxml.etree._parseMemoryDocument (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:79932) File "parser.pxi", line 1452, in lxml.etree._parseDoc (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:78774) File "parser.pxi", line 960, in lxml.etree._BaseParser._parseDoc (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:75389) File "parser.pxi", line 564, in lxml.etree._ParserContext._handleParseResultDoc (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:71739) File "parser.pxi", line 645, in lxml.etree._handleParseResult (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:72614) File "parser.pxi", line 585, in lxml.etree._raiseParseError (src/lxml/lxml.etree.c:71955) XMLSyntaxError: Extra content at the end of the document, line 6, column 1 ``` ---
**Author:** ![mikedm139](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/mikedm139/32/96909_2.png) [@mikedm139](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mikedm139)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/xml-parsing-issue/73461/2 "2014-08-12T16:15:07Z")
It's obviously barfing on some unexpected formatting or similar. Looks like an RSS feed and should likely be parsed with the feed parser rather than as HTML or XML. [http://dev.plexapp.com/docs/api/parsekit.html?highlight=rss#module-RSS](http://dev.plexapp.com/docs/api/parsekit.html?highlight=rss#module-RSS) [https://pythonhosted.org/feedparser/](https://pythonhosted.org/feedparser/) [Example in the PlexPodcast channel.](https://github.com/plexinc-plugins/PlexPodcast.bundle/blob/0455ed0fa15f480fb4dbd07a1ae618eb3407931a/Contents/Code/ __init__.py#L17) ---
**Author:** ![papalozarou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c6cbf5/32.png) [@papalozarou](https://forums.plex.tv/u/papalozarou)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 7:56am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/xml-parsing-issue/73461/3 "2014-08-13T07:56:55Z")
I got it to work, by converting the to a string and then regexing for the title and link. I then actually looked at the string and saw that the XML was malformed, with no closing tag for , meaning the actual URL existing as a node of the , i.e.: ``` Channel Name http://path/to/video.m3u8 ``` I didn't know about the feed parser though, so will look into that – will that be faster? ---
**Author:** ![mikedm139](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/mikedm139/32/96909_2.png) [@mikedm139](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mikedm139)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/xml-parsing-issue/73461/4 "2014-08-13T15:46:45Z")
It's not necessarily faster and may not work any better with malformed data but, it does come in handy for parsing RSS feeds. Having to compensate for bad data is a real PITA. It's a shame that you need to deal with that. ---
**Author:** ![papalozarou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c6cbf5/32.png) [@papalozarou](https://forums.plex.tv/u/papalozarou)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/xml-parsing-issue/73461/5 "2014-08-13T16:03:08Z")
I couldn't get it to work with the feed parser. So I'm sticking with what I've got for now. Though, as per my other thread, I've got slightly bigger problems... Thanks for your help as always though ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 2:42am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/xml-parsing-issue/73461/6 "2019-12-21T02:42:51Z")
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