<?php

  $tree = GetXMLTree("example.xml");

  echo "<pre>";
  print_r($tree);
  echo "</pre>";

  function GetXMLTree($file)
  {

    $data = file_get_contents($file) or die("Can't read file: ".$file);

    $xml_parser = xml_parser_create();
    xml_parse_into_struct($xml_parser, $data, $vals, $index);
    xml_parser_free($xml_parser);

    $items = array();
    $level = 0;
    $parents = array();

    $items[0] = '';
    $parents[] = &$items[0];
     
    foreach ($vals as $xml_elem)
    {
      if ($xml_elem['type'] == 'open')
      {
        if($level>0 && array_key_exists('children',$parents[$level-1]))
        {
          $SubLevel = count($parents[$level-1]['children']);
        }
        else
        {
          $SubLevel = 0;
        }

        $cChild = 0;

        $parents[$level] = &$parents[$level-1]['children'][$SubLevel];
        $parents[$level]['name'] = strtolower($xml_elem['tag']);
        $parents[$level]['type'] = 'complete';
        $level++;

        if(array_key_exists('attributes',$xml_elem))
        {
          $parents[$level-1]['attributes'] = $xml_elem['attributes'];
        }
      }

      if($xml_elem['type'] == 'complete')
      {
        $parents[$level-1]['children'][$cChild]['name'] = strtolower($xml_elem['tag']);
        $parents[$level-1]['children'][$cChild]['type'] = 'complete';
        $parents[$level-1]['children'][$cChild]['value'] = $xml_elem['value'];
         
        if(array_key_exists('attributes',$xml_elem))
        {
          $parents[$level-1]['children'][$cChild]['attributes'] = $xml_elem['attributes'];
        }

        $cChild++;
      }

      if($xml_elem['type'] == 'close')
      {
        $level--;
      }
    }

    return $parents[0];
  } // function GetXMLTree($file)

?>