I need some help on the SimpleXML calls for a recursive function that lists the elements name and attributes. Making a XML config file system but each script will have it's own config file as well as a new naming convention. So what I need is an easy way to map out all the elements that have attributes, so like in example 1 I need a simple way to call all the processes but I don't know how to do this without hard coding the elements name is the function call. Is there a way to recursively call a function to match a child element name? I did see the xpath functionality but I don't see how to use this for attributes. Any ideas?

Also does the XML in the examples look correct? can I structure my XML like this?

Example 1:

<application>
  <processes>
    <process id="123" name="run batch A" />
    <process id="122" name="run batch B" />
    <process id="129" name="run batch C" />
  </processes>
  <connections>
    <databases>
      <database usr="test" pss="test" hst="test" dbn="test" />
    </databases>
    <shells>
      <ssh usr="test" pss="test" hst="test-2" />
      <ssh usr="test" pss="test" hst="test-1" />
    </shells>
  </connections>
</application>

Example 2:

<config>
  <queues>
    <queue id="1" name="test" />
    <queue id="2" name="production" />
    <queue id="3" name="error" />
  </queues>
</config>

Pseudo code:

// Would return matching process id
getProcess($process_id) {
  return the process attributes as array that are in the XML
}

// Would return matching DBN (database name)
getDatabase($database_name) {
  return the database attributes as array that are in the XML
}

// Would return matching SSH Host
getSSHHost($ssh_host) {
  return the ssh attributes as array that are in the XML
}

// Would return matching SSH User
getSSHUser($ssh_user) {
  return the ssh attributes as array that are in the XML
}

// Would return matching Queue 
getQueue($queue_id) {
  return the queue attributes as array that are in the XML
}

EDIT:

Can I pass two parms? on the first method you have suggested @Gordon

public function findProcessById($id, $name)
{
    $attr = false;
    $el = $this->xml->xpath("//process[@id='$id']"); // How do I also filter by the name?
    if($el && count($el) === 1) {
        $attr = (array) $el[0]->attributes();
        $attr = $attr['@attributes'];
    }
    return $attr;
}