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SimpleXMLElement->attributes> <SimpleXMLElement->addChild
Last updated: Fri, 05 Sep 2008

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SimpleXMLElement->asXML

(No version information available, might be only in CVS)

SimpleXMLElement->asXML Return a well-formed XML string based on SimpleXML element

Description

SimpleXMLElement
mixed asXML ([ string $filename ] )

The asXML method formats the parent object's data in XML version 1.0.

Parameters

filename

If specified, the function writes the data to the file rather than returning it.

Return Values

If the filename isn't specified, this function returns a string on success and FALSE on error. If the parameter is specified, it returns TRUE if the file was written successfully and FALSE otherwise.

Examples

Example #1 Get XML

<?php
$string 
= <<<XML
<a>
 <b>
  <c>text</c>
  <c>stuff</c>
 </b>
 <d>
  <c>code</c>
 </d>
</a>
XML;

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($string);

echo 
$xml->asXML(); // <?xml ... <a><b><c>text</c><c>stuff</c> ...

?>

asXML also works on Xpath results:

Example #2 Using asXML() on Xpath results

<?php
// Continued from example XML above.

/* Search for <a><b><c> */
$result $xml->xpath('/a/b/c');

while(list( , 
$node) = each($result)) {
    echo 
$node->asXML(); // <c>text</c> and <c>stuff</c>
}
?>



SimpleXMLElement->attributes> <SimpleXMLElement->addChild
Last updated: Fri, 05 Sep 2008
 
add a note add a note User Contributed Notes
SimpleXMLElement->asXML
rgezella at gmail dot com
03-Sep-2008 01:38
Warning: str_repeat() [function.str-repeat]: Second argument has to be greater than or equal to 0

If you're having above error using Awf_Xml change all

 $pretty[] = str_repeat(' ', $indent) . $el;

to

$pretty[] = str_repeat(' ', ($indent<0)?0:$indent) . $el;
Anonymous
26-Aug-2008 09:50
DomDocument can do indentation on saveXML, so another way would be:

<?php

$simpleXml
= new SimpleXmlElement('...');

// ... do your simple xml construction

$dom = dom_import_simplexml($simpleXml)->ownerDocument;
$dom->formatOutput = true;

echo
$dom->saveXML();

?>

not especially better, and probably not faster, but an alternative.
arian.stolwijk [at] gmail [dot] com
15-Aug-2008 04:19
Another little improvement on Gary Malcolm's original asPrettyXML() and mjijackson's version:

<?php
class Awf_Xml extends SimpleXMLElement {

   
public function asXml($file=null,$level=4){
       
// get an array containing each XML element
       
$xml = explode("\n", preg_replace('/>\s*</', ">\n<", parent::asXML()));

       
// hold current indentation level
       
$indent = 0;

       
// hold the XML segments
       
$pretty = array();

       
// shift off opening XML tag if present
       
if (count($xml) && preg_match('/^<\?\s*xml/', $xml[0])) {
           
$pretty[] = array_shift($xml);
        }

        foreach (
$xml as $el) {
           
$line = str_replace(' ','',trim($el));
            if(empty(
$line)){
               
// There is nothing on this line, so we can skip it;)
               
continue;
            }
            if (
preg_match('/^<([\w])+[^>\/]*>$/U', $el)) {
               
// opening tag, increase indent
               
$pretty[] = str_repeat(' ', $indent) . $el;
               
$indent += $level;
            } else {
                if (
preg_match('/^<\/.+>$/', $el)) {
                   
// closing tag, decrease indent
                   
$indent -= $level;                   
                   
$pretty[] = str_repeat(' ', $indent) . $el;                   
                }elseif(
preg_match('/^<([\w])+[^>\/]*>.*<\/.+>$/',$el)){
                      
// Open and close on the same line
                   
$pretty[] = str_repeat(' ', $indent) . $el;                   
                }else{
                   
// There is no tag at this line, so we don't want to mess with it's content!
                   
$pretty[] = $el;
                }
            }
        }

       
$xml = implode("\n", $pretty);
        if(!empty(
$file)){
            return (bool)
file_put_contents($file,$xml);
        }else{
            return
$xml;
        }
    }   
}
?>
mjijackson at gmail dot com
27-May-2008 07:04
A small improvement on Gary Malcolm's original asPrettyXML() method:

<?php

class XMLElement extends SimpleXMLElement
{

   
/**
     * Outputs this element as pretty XML to increase readability.
     *
     * @param   int     $level      (optional) The number of spaces to use for
     *                              indentation, defaults to 4
     * @return  string              The XML output
     * @access  public
     */
   
public function asPrettyXML($level = 4)
    {
       
// get an array containing each XML element
       
$xml = explode("\n", preg_replace('/>\s*</', ">\n<", $this->asXML()));

       
// hold current indentation level
       
$indent = 0;

       
// hold the XML segments
       
$pretty = array();

       
// shift off opening XML tag if present
       
if (count($xml) && preg_match('/^<\?\s*xml/', $xml[0])) {
           
$pretty[] = array_shift($xml);
        }

        foreach (
$xml as $el) {
            if (
preg_match('/^<([\w])+[^>\/]*>$/U', $el)) {
               
// opening tag, increase indent
               
$pretty[] = str_repeat(' ', $indent) . $el;
               
$indent += $level;
            } else {
                if (
preg_match('/^<\/.+>$/', $el)) {
                   
// closing tag, decrease indent
                   
$indent -= $level;
                }
               
$pretty[] = str_repeat(' ', $indent) . $el;
            }
        }

        return
implode("\n", $pretty);
    }

}

?>

This method will make sure there is an opening XML tag before automatically shifting the first element off the array, thus preserving the correct indentation level when printing child elements instead of entire documents from the root node. It also allows you to pass the indentation level in as a parameter instead of setting the class variable.
Chris
27-Nov-2007 03:35
You habe to use utf8_encode() to insert your data into the XML-Object

<?php
$objXMLFile
= simplexml_load_string('<users></users>');
$objUser     = $objXMLFile->addChild('user');
$objUser->addAttribute('name', utf8_encode('Günther'));

echo
$objXMLFile->asXML();
?>
tim
20-Nov-2007 11:15
I think there is a bug while creating files. When I use the UTF-8 charset and use chars like ä,ö,ü the written file is not valid.

So

$xml->asXML("datei.xml");

and

file_put_contents("datei.xml",$xml->asXML());

deliver different results. The second is valid and correct.

Sorry for my english.
gary dot malcolm at gmail dot com
14-Sep-2007 01:15
I extended SimpleXml and added this code to give me pleasant source code XML. I'm sure it's ugly so if you can do it better go ahead...

<?php

    public
function asPrettyXML()
    {
       
$string = $this->asXML();
       
/**
         * put each element on it's own line
         */
       
$string =preg_replace("/>\s*</",">\n<",$string);

       
/**
         * each element to own array
         */
       
$xmlArray = explode("\n",$string);

       
/**
         * holds indentation
         */
       
$currIndent = 0;

       
/**
         * set xml element first by shifting of initial element
         */
       
$string = array_shift($xmlArray) . "\n";

        foreach(
$xmlArray as $element) {
           
/** find open only tags... add name to stack, and print to string
             * increment currIndent
             */

           
if (preg_match('/^<([\w])+[^>\/]*>$/U',$element)) {
               
$string .=  str_repeat(' ', $currIndent) . $element . "\n";
               
$currIndent += self::indent;
            }

           
/**
             * find standalone closures, decrement currindent, print to string
             */
           
elseif ( preg_match('/^<\/.+>$/',$element)) {
               
$currIndent -= self::indent;
               
$string .=  str_repeat(' ', $currIndent) . $element . "\n";
            }
           
/**
             * find open/closed tags on the same line print to string
             */
           
else {
               
$string .=  str_repeat(' ', $currIndent) . $element . "\n";
            }
        }

        return
$string;

    }
?>

Regards,

Gary Malcolm
Fred Trotter
23-Jun-2007 01:27
When trying to use the DOMDocument method for pretty printing the output of asXML be careful how you format the starting XML string. It cannot have spaces or other hidden chars "\n". I also had trouble with using different types of quotes for the starting XML, but I am unable to replicate that. So if you cannot get this to work then you might try swapping the single and double quotes.

<?php

$no_spaces
'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><Example></Example>';
$one_space '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><Example> </Example>';

echo
printy($no_spaces);
/* Outputs
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Example>
 <poop from="Myself">
    <smell>stinky</smell>
  </poop>
</Example>
*/

echo printy($one_space);
/* Outputs... note the space...
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Example> <poop from="Myself"><smell>stinky</smell></poop></Example>
*/

function printy($xmlstr){// a combination from the comments below...
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr);
$poop = $xml->addChild("poop");
$poop->addAttribute("from", "Myself");
$poop->addChild("smell", "stinky");
$doc = new DOMDocument('1.0');
$doc->formatOutput = true;
$domnode = dom_import_simplexml($xml);
$domnode = $doc->importNode($domnode, true);
$domnode = $doc->appendChild($domnode);

return
$doc->saveXML();
}

?>
Blake W
11-May-2007 06:21
Just a note to add onto the previous note: if your xml has already got a "\n" (new line) straight after the opening root tag, then the layout of the rest of the saveXML() will all be on one line, regardless of if you've set formatOutput to true. it's taken me about an hour to figure this out, and i hope this helps someone.
eggbird at bigfoot dot com
08-Apr-2007 11:39
One simple way to write out nicely indented XML data is by converting the whole batch to a DOM document, and using its formatOutput option:

$doc = new DOMDocument('1.0');
$doc->formatOutput = true;
$domnode = dom_import_simplexml($some_simplexml_node);
$domnode = $doc->importNode($domnode, true);
$domnode = $doc->appendChild($domnode);

echo $doc->saveXML();
ShinnyLeather
06-Mar-2007 07:39
Awww snap. If you are to do something like this:

<?php

   
// ... You have already read an xml file into a SimpleXMLElement stored in variable $poop
   
$poop = $simpEle->addChild("poop");
   
$poop->addAttribute("from", "Myself");
   
$poop->addChild("smell", "stinky");
   
   
file_put_contents("xml.xml", $poop->asXML());

?>

It will add all of the new xml on one line

<poop from="Myself"><smell>stinky</smell></poop>

So when you look at what was originally a nicely tabbed out xml file, it looks like doof. I understand why this happens, so let me just say that it would be awesome if someone wrote and shared function that takes the asXML() string, parses it, and returns a nicely tabbed out version. As a lot of the XML files I work with are smaller than large, the benefit of having a file readable to the human eye far outweights the benefit of having a smaller filesize.

SimpleXMLElement->attributes> <SimpleXMLElement->addChild
Last updated: Fri, 05 Sep 2008
 
 
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