Adding new node and its child nodes to XML document using DOMDocument

Question

This is a sample of my XML document which shows a website sitemap

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="Esurance 365 Portal">
    <elements>
        <element name="folderone" path="forms/folderone">
            <folder function="model">models</folder>
            <folder function="controller">controllers</folder>
            <folder function="view">views</folder>
        </element>
    </elements>
</project>

I would like to use DOMDocument to add another element node above the one illustrated so that it appears as follows

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <project name="Esurance 365 Portal">
        <elements>
           <element name="foldertwo" path="forms/foldertwo">
                <folder function="model">modelstwo</folder>
                <folder function="controller">controllerstwo</folder>
                <folder function="view">viewstwo</folder>
            </element>
            <element name="folderone" path="forms/folderone">
                <folder function="model">models</folder>
                <folder function="controller">controllers</folder>
                <folder function="view">views</folder>
            </element>
        </elements>
    </project>

But from the DOMDocument documentation I cant seem to find even an example that shows me how the new element would be achieved.

The createElement and appendChild methods only show me how to insert the element node but not how to insert the remaining folder child nodes.

using these functions you should get back a new DOM Node/Element on that you can call appendChild again. — Alex Odenthal
– Alex Odenthal, Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 12:53

Mohammad · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-07 13:36:16Z

1

Select element tag and use cloneNode() to copying it. Using setAttribute() set new value of attribute and using nodeValue set new text in target tag. At the end of code, insert new element before existing element using insertBefore().

$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadXml($xml);
// select "element" tag and copy it
$element = $dom->getElementsByTagName("element")->item(0);
$clone = $element->cloneNode(true);
// change value of attribute 
$clone->setAttribute("name", "foldertwo");
$clone->setAttribute("path", "forms/foldertwo");
// select "folder" tag in new "element" tag change text of them
$folder = $clone->getElementsByTagName("folder");
$folder->item(0)->nodeValue = "modelstwo";
$folder->item(1)->nodeValue = "controllerstwo";
$folder->item(2)->nodeValue = "viewstwo";
// insert new elements before existing element.
$element->parentNode->insertBefore($clone, $element);
$xml = $dom->saveXml();

See result in demo

answered Mar 7, 2017 at 13:36

Mohammad

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1 Comment

Stanley Ngumo Over a year ago

It does the trick ;-) but I would have also liked to get one which can create the node directly without having to clone an existing one.

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