PHP Update Simple Xml File

Question

I have searched around a bit and the answer seems to lie in using a DOM object but, after a lot of tinkering, I can't get any of the examples to work and I can't work out what I'm doing wrong. It may be that I'm just using the wrong method.

The xml is really simple..

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<courseinfo>
    <info>Under inspection (decision 13:15)</info>
    <buggies>Yes</buggies>
    <trolleys>No</trolleys>
</courseinfo>

All I want to do is to update and save the child nodes <info>, <buggies> and <trolleys> using form strings.

What is the best way to approach this?

iainn · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-26 13:59:47Z

1

If you need to modify an existing XML document, you can use the SimpleXML Extension to manipulate it using standard PHP object access.

$xml = file_get_contents('foo.xml');

$sxml = simplexml_load_string($xml);

$info = 'New info';
$buggies = 'New buggies';
$trolleys = 'New trolleys';

$sxml->info = $info;
$sxml->buggies = $buggies;
$sxml->trolleys = $trolleys;

file_put_contents('foo.xml', $sxml->asXML());

See https://eval.in/942615

answered Jan 26, 2018 at 13:59

iainn

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5 Comments

Richard Owens Over a year ago

Thanks for this - is this just an alternative to the native DOM method?

iainn Over a year ago

@RichardOwens They're both as "native" as each other - they've both been part of PHP core since version 5. DOMDocument is more suited for parsing HTML that might not be well-formed, but (in my opinion at least), if your markup is valid then SimpleXML is a much nicer interface.

Richard Owens Over a year ago

I agree with the simpler approach! Thank you.

Richard Owens Over a year ago

Hmm - again, this doesn't seem to work. I'm not getting an error but the changes aren't being saved... I'll check the error log.

Richard Owens Over a year ago

Sorry - not your error - mine! I had the wrong file_put_contents() path which led to permission problems. All works fine now. Thank you!

Marcel · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-26 13:49:28Z

0

The most appropriate way is using the PHP native DomDocument class.

$oDoc = new DomDocument('1.0', 'utf-8');

$oInfo = $oDoc->createElement('info', 'under inspection (decision 13:15)');
$oBuggies = $oDoc->createElement('buggies', 'Yes');
$oTrolleys = $oDoc->createElement('trolleys', 'No');

$oCourseinfo = $oDoc->createElement('courseinfo');
$oCourseinfo->appendChild($oInfo);
$oCourseinfo->appendChild($oBuggies);
$oCourseinfo->appendChild($oTrolleys);

$oDoc->appendChild($oCourseinfo);

echo $oDoc->saveXML();

Simple as pie.

answered Jan 26, 2018 at 13:49

Marcel

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1 Comment

Richard Owens Over a year ago

As above - thank you - I'm trying to establish why this is the most appropriate when compared to the simplexml method provided :)

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