Last updated: Fri, 13 Nov 2009

SimpleXMLElement::addChild

(PHP 5 >= 5.1.3)

SimpleXMLElement::addChild — Adds a child element to the XML node

Description

SimpleXMLElement

SimpleXMLElement addChild ( string $name [, string $value [, string $namespace ]] )

Adds a child element to the node and returns a SimpleXMLElement of the child.

Parameters

name: The name of the child element to add.
value: If specified, the value of the child element.
namespace: If specified, the namespace to which the child element belongs.

Return Values

The addChild method returns a SimpleXMLElement object representing the child added to the XML node.

Examples

Example #1 Add attributes and children to a SimpleXML element


<?php

include 'example.php';
 
$sxe = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr);
$sxe->addAttribute('type', 'documentary');

$movie = $sxe->addChild('movie');
$movie->addChild('title', 'PHP2: More Parser Stories');
$movie->addChild('plot', 'This is all about the people who make it work.');

$characters = $movie->addChild('characters');
$character  = $characters->addChild('character');
$character->addChild('name', 'Mr. Parser');
$character->addChild('actor', 'John Doe');

$rating = $movie->addChild('rating', '5');
$rating->addAttribute('type', 'stars');
 
echo $sxe->asXML();

?>


Warning: addChild doesn't escape like addAttribute does.





For example:


<?php


    $test = '<test/>';


    


    $msg = "This is a test & stuff.";


    


    $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($test);


    $xml->addAttribute('foo', $msg);


    


    echo htmlentities($xml->asXML());


    


    $xml->addChild('bar', $msg);


    


    echo htmlentities($xml->asXML());


?>





Outputs:





<?xml version="1.0"?>


<test foo="This is a test &amp; stuff."/>





Warning:  SimpleXMLElement::addChild() [simplexmlelement.addchild]: unterminated entity reference          stuff. in file.php on line 13





<?xml version="1.0"?>


<test foo="This is a test &amp; stuff."><bar>This is a test </bar></test>





Instead of the expected:


<?xml version="1.0"?>


<test foo="This is a test &amp; stuff."><bar>This is a test &amp; stuff.</bar></test>





This can be avoided by using the following:





<?php


    // Generates an error:


    // $xml->addChild('bar', $msg);


 


    // Works as expected:


    $bar = $xml->addChild('bar');    


    $bar[0] = $msg;


?>

Dmitry Dulepov
02-Sep-2009 12:53


addChild will automatically escape all XML characters as necessary. You do not have to do any magic when adding values like "if a > b then...".

d dot smith at sharedlog dot com
31-May-2009 11:38


If you want to add a child element that is prefixed by a namespace like this one:





<content:encoded>





then this is what you need to do:





<?php


$parent->addChild('content:encoded', 'some actual content here', ''http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/'');


?>





Make sure you declared the namespace at some parent element, preferrably at root:


<root xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/">





This will create a child element that will look like this when object dumpted as xml string:


<content:encoded>





If you are adding child this way: 





<?php


$parent->addChild('encoded', 'some actual content here', ''content'');


?>





then your child element will look like this:


<encoded xmlns="content">


which is also a valid xml tag and basically has the same exact value as <content:encoded> but just looks different.

ldmc at yahoo dot com
17-Mar-2009 06:14


Simple way to add a text node:





<?php


$x=simplexml_load_string('<test />');


$x->addAttribute('id','x01');


$x[0]='text node';


echo $x->asXML();


?>





Result:





<?xml version="1.0"?>


<test id="x01">text node</test>





Any numeric array subscript (in this case 0) will work.

jonasmartinez at gmail dot com
17-Mar-2009 02:56


The class:


<?php


class SimpleXMLExtend extends SimpleXMLElement


{


  public function addCData($nodename,$cdata_text)


  {


    $node = $this->addChild($nodename); //Added a nodename to create inside the function


    $node = dom_import_simplexml($node);


    $no = $node->ownerDocument;


    $node->appendChild($no->createCDATASection($cdata_text));


  }


} 


?>





And to use:





<?php


$xml = new SimpleXMLExtended('<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?><root></root>');


$xml->addCData("newnode","contenthere with & $ % etc");


echo $xml->asXml();


?>

Donet
02-Oct-2008 02:11


I found this easy way to create a CDATA section as child value:





I extend the class SimpleXMLElement:





<?php


class SimpleXMLExtended extends SimpleXMLElement


{


  public function addCData($cdata_text)


  {


    $node= dom_import_simplexml($this);


    $no = $node->ownerDocument;


    $node->appendChild($no->createCDATASection($cdata_text));


  }


}


?>





Then in the main code:





<?php


$xml = new SimpleXMLExtended('<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?><root></root>');


$mynode = $xml->addChild("myname");


$mynode->addCData("my name contains everything I want &%<>");


echo $xml->asXml();


?>

essen at dev-extend dot eu
17-Jul-2008 04:06


Easy and fast deleting of a node:





<?php





$oNode = dom_import_simplexml($oSimpleXMLNodeToDelete);


$oNode->parentNode->removeChild($oNode);





?>





The node can have childs, attributes, and be anywhere in your document, it'll get deleted. The deletion will appear immediately in your SimpleXML object after calling removeChild, there's nothing else to do.

kobrasrealm at gmail dot com
28-Jun-2008 09:22


Here's a handy workaround to accommodate the lack of a $xml->deleteChild() function. It's not perfect, but it's a start (and it works for what I'm using it for):





<?php


// Workaround by Kobra.


function simplexml_deleteChild($parent, $childname, $parentname)


{


$temp = simplexml_load_string(str_replace("#","?","<#xml version=\"1.0\"#>\n<".$parentname.">\n</".$parentname.">"));


foreach($parent as $t)


{


  if($t->getName() != $childname)


  {


  $name = $t->getName();


  $value = eval("return \$parent->".$name.";");


  $temp->addChild($t->getName(), $value);


  }


}


return $temp;


}





?>





I have not tested this with multi-level XML files; but like I said, it's a start.

danz at gethitz dot info
30-Jan-2008 01:12


Object cloning ...





So using the 'clone' keyword here lets you work on $new separately, and attributes added to $new don't show up in $sxe





without the 'clone' all changes to $new will be reflected in the larger $sxe tree





<?php


                $new = clone $sxe->AddChild("comment",$comment);


                $new->AddAttribute("name",$name);


                $new->AddAttribute("url",$url);


                $new->AddAttribute("ip",$ip);


                $new->AddAttribute("time",$time);


?>

ron @ rotflol dot cx
10-Jul-2007 04:37


Replacing a node is an easy mod of the simplexml_append





<?php


function simplexml_replace(SimpleXMLElement $parent, SimpleXMLElement $new_child){


   $node1 = dom_import_simplexml($parent);


   $dom_sxe = dom_import_simplexml($new_child);


   $node2 = $node1->ownerDocument->importNode($dom_sxe, true);


   $node1->parentNode->replaceChild($node2,$node1);


}


?>

r dot versluis at millipede dot nl
22-May-2007 01:23


<?php


// phpversion <= 5.1.2





function simplexml_addChild($parent, $name, $value=''){


    $new_child = new SimpleXMLElement("<$name>$value</$name>");


    $node1 = dom_import_simplexml($parent);


    $dom_sxe = dom_import_simplexml($new_child);


    $node2 = $node1->ownerDocument->importNode($dom_sxe, true);


    $node1->appendChild($node2);


    return simplexml_import_dom($node2);


}





function simplexml_addAttribute($parent, $name, $value=''){


    $node1 = dom_import_simplexml($parent);


    $node1->setAttribute($name,$value);


    return simplexml_import_dom($node1);


}





?>

l dot j dot peters at student dot utwente dot nl
31-Jan-2007 04:51


Rob Richards and I have come up with a very easy way to append one SimpleXML tree to another:


<?php


function simplexml_append(SimpleXMLElement $parent, SimpleXMLElement $new_child){


    $node1 = dom_import_simplexml($parent);


    $dom_sxe = dom_import_simplexml($new_child);


    $node2 = $node1->ownerDocument->importNode($dom_sxe, true);


    $node1->appendChild($node2);


}


?>


And adding a textnode is also easy:


<?php


//$sxe1 (refers to SimpleXMLElement)


$node1 = dom_import_simplexml($sxe1);


$node1->appendChild(new DOMText("my text"));


?>





Ofcourse, you could use this to extend the SimpleXMLElement class and overwrite and improve the existing addChild function.





Have fun, Luuk Peters.

thomas dot ekdahl at empatix dot no
18-Sep-2006 12:57


Because SimpleXML transforms the values & to & whe reading from file or string, the values becomes invalid for use when adding childs later on. This simple conversion to the example above fixes this problem.





<?php


class XMLElement extends SimpleXMLElement


{


    public function addElement (SimpleXMLElement $xmlTree,$root=false)


    {


        if($root)


        {


            $child = $this->addChild ($xmlTree->getName());


            foreach ($xmlTree->attributes() as $k => $v)


            {


                $child->addAttribute($k,$v);


            }


            $child->addElement($xmlTree);


        }


        else


        {


            foreach ($xmlTree as $childName => $childTree)


            {





                $child = $this->addChild($childName,$this->fix_content((string) $childTree)); // this is not comletely correct


                foreach ($childTree->attributes() as $k => $v)


                {


                    $child->addAttribute($k,$v);


                }


                $child->addElement($childTree->children());


            }


        }


    }


    


    #When the xml is read by simplexml_load_file or simplexml_load_file the values that contains & is converted to &. And then it is not possible to add these values without getting errors.


    #THis function should fix this


    public function fix_content($value) {


        return str_replace('&', '&', $value);


    }


}


?>

fred at misterbob dot nl
03-Aug-2006 04:23


Method to append (Simple)XMLElements to each other.





<?php


class XMLElement extends SimpleXMLElement {


    


    public function addElement (XMLElement $xmlTree,$root=false) {


        if ($root) {


            $child = $this->addChild ($xmlTree->getName());


            foreach ($xmlTree->attributes() as $k => $v) {


                $child->addAttribute($k,$v);


            }


            $child->addElement($xmlTree);


        } else {


            foreach ($xmlTree as $childName => $childTree) {


                $child = $this->addChild($childName,(string) $childTree); // this is not comletely correct


                foreach ($childTree->attributes() as $k => $v) {


                    $child->addAttribute($k,$v);


                }


                $child->addElement($childTree->children());


            }


        }


    }


}


$xmlMovies = "<movies><movie name=\"Shawshank Redemption\"><plot>The life of Andy Dufresne changes when he is convicted and jailed for the murder of his wife.</plot></movie></movies>";


$elMovies = new XMLElement($xmlMovies);





$xmlGodfather = "<movie name=\"Godfather\"><plot>The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.</plot></movie>";


$elGodfather = new XMLElement ($xmlGodfather);





$elMovies->addElement($elGodfather,true);


echo $elMovies->asXML();


?>

add a note

SimpleXMLElement::asXML

SimpleXMLElement::addAttribute