Unable to access elements in SimpleXML

[thecoolone]

I am creating a REST API in php that parses the XML result given by IBM
Omnifind.
here's the php code:

$query=$_GET['query'];
$request='http://localhost:8080/api/search?index=De fault&start=0&r esults=4&query= new';
$response=file_ get_contents($r equest);
if ($response === false) {
die('Request failed');}
$phpobject = simplexml_load_ string($respons e);
print "Printing title $phpobject->title is
$phpobject->entry->0->link";
echo '<pre>';
print_r($phpobj ect);
echo '<pre>'; }


And this is the output:
SimpleXMLElemen t Object
(
[title] =Search results for query 'new' on index Default
[link] =SimpleXMLEleme nt Object
(
[@attributes] =Array
(
[href] =>

http://localhost:8080/api/search?index=Default&start=0&results=4&query=new

[rel] =self
[type] =application/atom+xml
)

)

[author] =SimpleXMLEleme nt Object
(
[name] =IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition API Web Service
)

[id] =>

http://localhost:8080/api/search?index=Default&start=0&results=4&query=new

[category] =SimpleXMLEleme nt Object
(
[@attributes] =Array
(
[term] =Default
[label] =Default
) )

I am able to access the elements in this way $phpobject->title. BUT the
problem is that it only works for elements that have a value, like
"title" and "id" in the above output.
When i try to access the "href" in "link" by using
$phpobject->link->attributes->href;
and "term" in "category" by using
$phpobject->category->attributes->term; it doesnt work.
what could be the reason? How to access elements that contain "@"?

thanx in advance