I know this is not a Linux question, but this is still the smartest Group I know.

I made the simplest XML file I can contrive.

<? xml version 1.0 ?>
<page>
<menu>note</menu>
</page>

yes it is at the very top of the file.

Now I'm trying to pull it into my PHP.

$feat = new SimpleXMLElement(file_get_contents("main.xml"));

I've checked letter by letter, I don't see anything wrong in my code. permitions are correct in file and folder. what else would cause errors reading this in?