Getting the XML ID using REXML - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have an XML response as included below. How can I obtain the element?
In rails I have:
xml = REXML::Document.new(contacts_as_xml)
Rails.logger.info xml[1].attributes["id"]
Which is not returning 'user#company.com'
Thanks
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:gContact="http://schemas.google.com/contact/2008" xmlns:batch="http://schemas.google.com/gdata/batch" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" gd:etag="W/"Ck8BQ38yfyt7I2A9WhNSFk8."">
<id>user#company.com</id>
<updated>2012-10-30T18:14:12.197Z</updated>
<category scheme="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#kind" term="http://schemas.google.com/contact/2008#contact" />
<title>Users's Contacts</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.google.com/" />
<link rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/myuser%40mysite.com/full" />
<link rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#post" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/myuser%40mysite.com/full" />
<link rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#batch" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/myuser%40mysite.com/full/batch" />
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/myuser%40mysite.com/full?max-results=10000" />
<author>
<name>User Howdy</name>
<email>user#company.com</email>
</author>
<generator version="1.0" uri="http://www.google.com/m8/feeds">Contacts</generator>
<openSearch:totalResults>2</openSearch:totalResults>
<openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex>
<openSearch:itemsPerPage>10000</openSearch:itemsPerPage>
<entry gd:etag=""QXc5eDVSLit7I2A9WhdSFk8PTgU."">
<id>http://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/myuser%40mysite.com/base/970a99881a51f3</id>
<updated>2011-07-25T20:31:50.920Z</updated>
<app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2011-07-25T20:31:50.920Z</app:edited>
<category scheme="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#kind" term="http://schemas.google.com/contact/2008#contact" />
<title>Jon Paris</title>
<link rel="http://schemas.google.com/contacts/2008/rel#photo" type="image/*" href="https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/photos/media/myuser%40mysite.com/970a99881a51f3" />
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/myuser%40mysite.com/full/970a99881a51f3" />
<link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/myuser%40mysite.com/full/970a99881a51f3" />
<gd:name>
<gd:fullName>Jon Adams</gd:fullName>
<gd:givenName>Jon</gd:givenName>
<gd:familyName>Adams</gd:familyName>
</gd:name>
<gd:email rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#other" address="jon#adams.com" primary="true" />
<gd:email rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#home" address="jon#adams.com" />
</entry>
<entry gd:etag=""R3YzcTFbKit7I2A9WhJbE00ORQY."">
<id>http://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/myuser%40mysite.com/base/1229b5e8eeef3e3</id>
<updated>2012-09-22T08:57:06.889Z</updated>
<app:edited xmlns:app="http://www.w3.org/2007/app">2012-09-22T08:57:06.889Z</app:edited>
<category scheme="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#kind" term="http://schemas.google.com/contact/2008#contact" />
<title></title>
<link rel="http://schemas.google.com/contacts/2008/rel#photo" type="image/*" href="https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/photos/media/myuser%40mysite.com/1229b5e8eeef3e3" gd:etag=""UQZOJlcjWit7I2BmGBdVTzBfL2E2GGI5Myk."" />
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/myuser%40mysite.com/full/1229b5e8eeef3e3" />
<link rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/myuser%40mysite.com/full/1229b5e8eeef3e3" />
<gd:email rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#other" address="person#site.com" primary="true" />
<gd:email rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#home" address="person#gmail.com" />
</entry>
</feed>

Answer 1

Problem
When you do:
xml[1].attributes["id"]
You are getting the text node of <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> and then trying to get its id attribute. Since it does not exist, you got blank.
Solution
You want:
xml.root.elements['id'].text
#=> user#company.com
Note that "user#company.com" is a text node of the id element. It is not an attribute.