xpath soap namespace grabbing items

I am feeling like i am doing something really not correct. When doing a soap they return me with an xml which may or may not contain an error. I would like to check if the error exists if not read the values. somehow, I can't grab it directly :(

Below is a sample return of something with results and one which gives an error (name not found)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soapEnvelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:wsa="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing" xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd" xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd">
    <envHeader xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
        <wsaAction>http://www.rechtspraak.nl/namespaces/ccr01/searchPersonResponse</wsaAction>
        <wsaMessageID>urn:uuid:b75d2932-5687-4871-9d07-3b74b084978a</wsaMessageID>
        <wsaRelatesTo>urn:uuid:9112d870-248d-4d07-acd0-d88e4a48d547</wsaRelatesTo>
        <wsaTo>http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing/role/anonymous</wsaTo>
        <wsseSecurity>
        <wsuTimestamp wsu:Id="Timestamp-061df7b5-32a2-4021-852d-2df98953e076">
            <wsuCreated>2011-05-27T12:11:45Z</wsuCreated>开发者_如何学编程
            <wsuExpires>2011-05-27T12:16:45Z</wsuExpires>
        </wsuTimestamp>
    </envHeader>
    <soapBody>
        <searchPersonResponse xmlns="http://www.rechtspraak.nl/namespaces/ccr01">
            <searchPersonResult>
                <CCR_WS xmlns="http://www.rechtspraak.nl/namespaces/ccr">
                    <curandus>
                        <ccn>1</ccn>
                        <cur_voornamen>Jan</cur_voornamen>
                        <cur_voorvoegsels>van</cur_voorvoegsels>
                        <cur_achternaam>Beek</cur_achternaam>
                        <geboorte_datum>1980-01-02</geboorte_datum>
                        <geboorte_plaats>Werkendam</geboorte_plaats>
                    </curandus>
                </CCR_WS>
            </searchPersonResult>
        </searchPersonResponse>
    </soapBody>
</soapEnvelope>

and the one without results

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soapEnvelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:wsa="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing" xmlns:wsse="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-secext-1.0.xsd" xmlns:wsu="http://docs.oasis-open.org/wss/2004/01/oasis-200401-wss-wssecurity-utility-1.0.xsd">
    <envHeader xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
        <wsaAction>http://www.rechtspraak.nl/namespaces/ccr01/searchPersonResponse</wsaAction>
        <wsaMessageID>urn:uuid:b75d2932-5687-4871-9d07-3b74b084978a</wsaMessageID>
        <wsaRelatesTo>urn:uuid:9112d870-248d-4d07-acd0-d88e4a48d547</wsaRelatesTo>
        <wsaTo>http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/08/addressing/role/anonymous</wsaTo>
        <wsseSecurity>
        <wsuTimestamp wsu:Id="Timestamp-061df7b5-32a2-4021-852d-2df98953e076">
            <wsuCreated>2011-05-27T12:11:45Z</wsuCreated>
            <wsuExpires>2011-05-27T12:16:45Z</wsuExpires>
        </wsuTimestamp>
    </envHeader>
    <soapBody>
        <searchPersonResponse xmlns="http://www.rechtspraak.nl/namespaces/ccr01">
            <searchPersonResult>
                <CCR_WS xmlns="http://www.rechtspraak.nl/namespaces/ccr">
                    <exceptie errorcode="1">No Results found.</exceptie>
                </CCR_WS>
            </searchPersonResult>
        </searchPersonResponse>
    </soapBody>
</soapEnvelope>

Here is my code to select the namespace, then check

$results = simplexml_load_string($response);
$results->registerXPathNamespace('ccr','http://www.rechtspraak.nl/namespaces/ccr');

$lijst = $results->xpath('//ccr:CCR_WS');
$errorcode  = $lijst[0]->exceptie->attributes()->errorcode;
$error      = $lijst[0]->exceptie;
if (isset($errorcode) AND $errorcode != "") {
    // do things with the error code
} else {
    $lijst = $results->xpath('//ccr01:searchPersonResult'); 
    $cur = $lijst[0]->CCR_WS->curandus;
    echo $cur->ccn."<BR>";
    echo $cur->cur_voornamen."<BR>";
    echo $cur->cur_voorvoegsels."<BR>";
    echo $cur->cur_achternaam."<BR>";
    echo $cur->geboorte_datum."<BR>";
    echo $cur->geboorte_plaats."<BR>";
}

surely there is a better way of grabbing $lijst[0]->exceptie->attributes()->errorcode

for example...

...Don't know if this is a "better way" to everyone, but here is a direct XPath expression to select the errorcode. You can make it shorter and less efficient by dropping steps and using // (in the beginning or in the middle). Attributes are selected with @ (or with attribute:: axis if you prefer the longer syntax). If attribute (or the exceptie element) doesn't exist, nothing is returned.

/*/*/ccr01:searchPersonResponse/ccr01:searchPersonResult/ccr:CCR_WS/ccr:exceptie/@errorcode

Remember to register all the namespace prefixes that yo use in your XPath expression.