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Using the API

The XmlUtil library provides a simple but powerful API for working with XML documents. Here's how to get started.

Creating XML Documents​

From a string​

Creating from an XML string
<?php
use ByJG\XmlUtil\XmlDocument;

// Create from an XML string
$xml = new XmlDocument('<root />');

From a file​

Creating from a file
<?php
use ByJG\XmlUtil\XmlDocument;
use ByJG\XmlUtil\File;

// Create from a file
$file = new File('/path/to/file.xml');
$xml = new XmlDocument($file);

Create an empty document​

Creating an empty document
<?php
use ByJG\XmlUtil\XmlDocument;

// Create an empty document with a specific root element
$xml = XmlDocument::emptyDocument('root');

// Create with a namespace
$xml = XmlDocument::emptyDocument('root', 'http://www.example.com/ns');

Building XML Structure​

Building XML structure programmatically
<?php
use ByJG\XmlUtil\XmlDocument;

$xml = new XmlDocument('<root />');

// Add child nodes
$myNode = $xml->appendChild('mynode');
$myNode->appendChild('subnode', 'text');
$myNode->appendChild('subnode', 'more text');
$otherNode = $myNode->appendChild('othersubnode', 'other text');

// Add attributes
$otherNode->addAttribute('attr', 'value');

// Output formatted XML
echo $xml->toString(format: true);

Output:

Resulting XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<root>
  <mynode>
    <subnode>text</subnode>
    <subnode>more text</subnode>
    <othersubnode attr="value">other text</othersubnode>
  </mynode>
</root>

Working with Nodes​

Adding Text​

Adding text and CDATA
$node = $xml->appendChild('node');
$node->addText('Some text');

// Add CDATA section
$node->addText('This is <CDATA> content', true);

Inserting Nodes​

Inserting nodes before the current node
// Insert a node before the current node
$newNode = $node->insertBefore('newnode', 'new node text');

Getting the Parent Node​

Getting the parent node
$parent = $node->parentNode();

Renaming Nodes​

Renaming nodes
// Rename the current node
$node->renameNode('newName');

// Rename with namespace prefix
$node->renameNode('prefix:newName');

Removing Nodes​

Removing nodes
// Remove the current node
$node->removeNode();

// Remove all nodes with a specific tag name
$xml->removeTagName('tagToRemove');

Adding objects​

Adding PHP objects to XML
// Add a PHP object or array to the XML structure
$object = new stdClass();
$object->property = 'value';
$node->appendObject($object);

Importing nodes from another document​

Importing nodes from another document
// Import nodes from another document or file
$node->importNodes($otherXmlNode, 'nodeToImport');

Converting to Other Formats​

Convert to Array​

Converting XML to array
$array = $xml->toArray();

Convert to String​

Converting XML to string
// Default output
$string = $xml->toString();

// Formatted output
$string = $xml->toString(format: true);

// Without XML header
$string = $xml->toString(noHeader: true);

Accessing DOM Objects​

Accessing underlying DOM objects
// Get the underlying DOMNode
$domNode = $xml->DOMNode();

// Get the underlying DOMDocument
$domDocument = $xml->DOMDocument();

Saving XML​

Saving XML to file
// Save to a file
$xml->save('/path/to/output.xml');

// Save with formatting
$xml->save('/path/to/output.xml', format: true);

// Save without XML header
$xml->save('/path/to/output.xml', format: true, noHeader: true);

Class Diagram​