Write PHP to same XML document, rather than create one for each iteration

There are several thinks i believe that can be done better , firstly as Andreas said , you're re assigning the var $new at every loop , so remember a the concat operator dot :

$new .= str_replace($find,$replace,$contents);

and at the end of the loop you will got concatenated all loops iteration on $new .

I suggest you to open document as this :

<?php 

Instead of this :

<?

By this way php will be able to work with XML .

And i suggest to use the specific library to deal with XML instead of the way you're doing.

simpleXml PHP

It's better idea to construct your xml and parse / save intead of working it with disk ... you will face a lot of troubles in future with special chars , charsets ..etc..

Try this (untested):

<?php

$filename = 'MYDRIVE\XML_TEMPLATE2.xml';
$contents = file_get_contents($filename); 

$emaillist = array(array('fname'            => 'Brad',
                         'lname'            => 'BoBo',
                         'recipient'        => '[email protected]'),  

                   array('fname'            => 'Josh',
                         'lname'            => 'Jojo',
                         'recipient'        => '[email protected]'),

                   array('fname'            => 'Sam',
                         'lname'            => 'Soso',
                         'recipient'        => '[email protected]'),

                   array('fname'            => 'Dave',
                         'lname'            => 'Dojo',
                         'recipient'        => '[email protected]'));

// This will open/ create the file if non-existent.

$handle      = fopen("MYDRIVE/tempname.xml", "w+");
$filename    = 'MYDRIVE/tempname.xml';
$filecontent = '';
foreach ($emaillist as &$person) 
{

    $fname      = $person['fname'];
    $lname      = $person['lname'];
    $recipient  = $person['recipient'];
    $todaysdate = date("F j, Y, g:i a"); 

    $find       = array("[[firstname]]",
                        "[[lastname]]",
                        "[[recipient]]",
                        "[[todaysdate]]");

    $replace    = array($fname,
                        $lname,
                        $recipient,
                        $todaysdate);

    $new        = str_replace($find,
                              $replace,
                              $contents);

    $filecontent .= $new;
}
if (is_writable($filename)) 
{ 
    print "<b>Data added to file:</b>";
    print "<br>";
    print "<br>";

    if (!$handle = fopen($filename, 'a')) 
    {
         print "Cannot open file ($filename)";
         exit;
    }

    // Adds $filecontent to file.

    if (fwrite($handle, $filecontent) === FALSE) 
    {
        print "Cannot write to file ($filename)";
        exit;
    }

    print "Success! <br><br> ($filecontent) <br><br> was added to ($filename)";

    fclose($handle);

} 
else 
{
    print "<b>Error:</b>";
    print "The file $filename is not writable";
    exit();
}

// Generate file name for use.

$filenamegen = date("d_h_i_s");

if (rename ("MYDRIVE/tempname.xml", "MYDRIVE/" . $filenamegen . ".xml"))
{ 
    print "File successfully saved as : $filenamegen";
    print "<br><br>";
}
else
{
    print "Error renaming file.";
    exit();
}

print "</div>";

If you have the XML header in your XML_TEMPLATE2.xml, you should remove it there and instead add it to $filecontent before the foreach-loop. Same for the root-node - open it before the foreach and close it after the foreach.