PHP Cookbook

12.2. Generating XML with the DOM

Problem

You want to generate XML but want to do it in an organized way instead of using print and loops.

Solution

Use PHP’s DOM XML extension to create a DOM object; then, call dump_mem( ) or dump_file( ) to generate a well-formed XML document:

// create a new document
$dom = domxml_new_doc('1.0');

// create the root element, <book>, and append it to the document
$book = $dom->append_child($dom->create_element('book'));

// create the title element and append it to $book
$title = $book->append_child($dom->create_element('title'));

// set the text and the cover attribute for $title
$title->append_child($dom->create_text_node('PHP Cookbook'));
$title->set_attribute('cover', 'soft');

// create and append author elements to $book
$sklar = $book->append_child($dom->create_element('author'));
// create and append the text for each element
$sklar->append_child($dom->create_text_node('Sklar'));

$trachtenberg = $book->append_child($dom->create_element('author'));
$trachtenberg->append_child($dom->create_text_node('Trachtenberg'));

// print a nicely formatted version of the DOM document as XML
echo $dom->dump_mem(true);
<?xml version="1.0"?>
               <book>
                 <title cover="soft">PHP Cookbook</title>
                 <author>Sklar</author>
                 <author>Trachtenberg</author>
               </book>

Discussion

A single element is known as a node . Nodes can be of a dozen different types, but the three most popular are elements, attributes, and text. Given this:

<book cover="soft">PHP Cookbook</book>

PHP’s ...