What are the best practices for working with XML objects like SimpleXMLElement in PHP to prevent serialization errors and ensure proper data handling?

When working with XML objects like SimpleXMLElement in PHP, it is important to properly handle data to prevent serialization errors. One common issue is trying to serialize the XML object directly, which can lead to errors due to the complex structure of the object. To avoid this, it is recommended to convert the XML object to an array before serializing it.

// Load XML data into SimpleXMLElement object
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlData);

// Convert SimpleXMLElement object to array
$xmlArray = json_decode(json_encode($xml), true);

// Serialize the array
$serializedData = serialize($xmlArray);