Append xml tree to another xml tree in PHP using DOMDocuments

Question

I am looking to append an xml tree to another.

For example, I want the following xml:

<a>
  <b>
    <c/>
  </b>
</a>

To have the following xml inside it:

<n:d xmlns:xsl="namespace">
  <n:e>
    <n:f/>
  </n:e>
</n:d>

so that it looks like this:

<a>
  <b>
    <c/>
    <n:d xmlns:n="namespace">
      <n:e>
        <n:f/>
      </n:e>
    </n:d>
  </b>
</a>

The code that I have attempting and failing to do this is as follows:

$doc1 = new DOMDocument();
$doc2 = new DOMDocument();

$doc1->loadXML($xml1);
$doc2->loadXML($xml2);

$node_To_Insert = $doc2->getElementsByTagName('d')->item(0);
$node_To_Be_Inserted_To = $doc1->getElementsByTagName('b')->item(0);

$node_To_Be_Inserted_To->appendChild($doc1->importNode($node_To_Insert));

echo '<pre>'.htmlspecialchars(print_r($doc1->saveXML(),true)).'</pre>';

The current result I get from the echo:

<a>
  <b>
    <c/>
    <n:d xmlns:n="namespace" />
  </b>
</a>

I am out of ideas that aren't impossible to read, or aren't seemingly stupidly roundabout.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Mike Cluck · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-12 20:51:54Z

2

Your solution is very close. You only need to perform a deep copy with importNode to get the result you want.

$node_To_Be_Inserted_To->appendChild($doc1->importNode($node_To_Insert, true));

answered Nov 12, 2015 at 20:51

Mike Cluck

32.6k13 gold badges84 silver badges95 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Parfait · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-13 03:59:58Z

Alternatively, the native way to handle XML transformations such as merging documents is using XSLT, the special-purpose language designed primarily for this need to re-structure, re-style, re-format XML documents for various end-use needs.

Much like another special-purpose language, SQL, is for databases, XSLT is handy with XML files. And PHP comes equipped with an XSLT processor (might need to enable the extension: php_xsl.so) .

XSLT (save as .xsl or .xslt file)

<xsl:transform xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:output version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes" />
<xsl:strip-space elements="*" />

  <!-- Identity Transform -->
  <xsl:template match="@*|node()">
     <xsl:copy>
       <xsl:apply-templates select="@*|node()"/>
     </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>

  <xsl:template match="b">
    <b>
      <xsl:copy-of select="c" />
      <xsl:copy-of select="document('doc2.xml')"/>
    </b>
  </xsl:template> 
</xsl:transform>

PHP (load only first doc as XSLT above loads second doc at specific node)

$doc1 = new DOMDocument();    
$doc1->load('doc1.xml');

$xsl = new DOMDocument;
$xsl->load('XSLTScript.xsl');

// Configure the transformer
$proc = new XSLTProcessor;
$proc->importStyleSheet($xsl); 

// Transform XML source
$newXml = $proc->transformToXML($doc1);

// Save output to file
$xmlfile = 'Output.xml';
file_put_contents($xmlfile, $newXml);

OUTPUT

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<a>
  <b>
    <c/>
    <n:d xmlns:n="namespace">
      <n:e>
        <n:f/>
      </n:e>
    </n:d>
  </b>
</a>

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Append xml tree to another xml tree in PHP using DOMDocuments

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related