PHP SimpleXMLElement problems with xml node

Question

I want to create an XML with the following structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<content>
    <!-- content goes here -->
</content>

I originally created the xml node like this:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<xml/>');
$content = $xml->addChild('content');
// add data to content

but that doesn't allow for adding attributes to the xml node, so now I do this:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>'
                      .'<content></content>');

For some reason it doesn't work without adding the content node, but whatever, it gets the structure right.

Now, how do I assign the content node to a variable like I did above, so I can add data to it?

lorenzobe · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-18 09:21:16Z

1

In your case the $xml variable is equal to the content node just try the following:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>'
    .'<content></content>');
$xml->addAttribute('Attribute', 'value');
$xml->addChild('node_name', 'value');
echo $xml->asXML();

this should print

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<content Attribute="value"><node_name>value</node_name></content>

answered Aug 18, 2015 at 9:21

lorenzobe

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VolkerK · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-18 08:48:50Z

1

E.g.

<?php
$content = new SimpleXMLElement('<content />');
$content['attr']='value';

echo $content->asXML();

prints

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<content attr="value"/>

--- edit:
To keep the encoding=utf-8:

$content = new SimpleXMLElement('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<content />');

answered Aug 18, 2015 at 8:48

VolkerK

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2 Comments

user923487 Over a year ago

Yes, but how do I assign the content node to a variable to actually work with it when I do it like that?

hakre Over a year ago

xml version 1.0 default encoding is UTF-8, so there is no need to "keep" it :)

hakre · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-18 18:08:37Z

1

An XML document must have at least one element. That is the document element. In your question this is the content element.

You can create a SimpleXMLElement of it by just instantiating it with this minimum string:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<content/>');

The variable $xml then represents that element. You can then...

... add attributes: $xml['attribute'] = 'value';
... set the content-text: $xml[0] = 'text';
... add child-elements: $xml->child = 'value';

This exemplary line-up then would have created the following XML (beautified, also: online demo):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<content attribute="value">
  text
  <child>value</child>
</content>

answered Aug 18, 2015 at 18:08

hakre

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