Question

I’m trying to add a childnode in an XML document with PHP and got it OK so far except one thing. Can’t get it formatted correct?

Here is the script:

$xmldoc = new DOMDocument();
$xml->formatOutput = true;
$xml->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
$xmldoc->loadXML('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<data>
  <udate>1347730639</udate>
  <userid>3</userid>
</data>');

echo "<xmp>OLD:\n". $xmldoc->saveXML() ."</xmp>";

$root = $xmldoc->firstChild;

$newElement = $xmldoc->createElement('popup');
$root->appendChild($newElement);
$newText = $xmldoc->createTextNode("0");
$newElement->appendChild($newText);

echo "<xmp>NEW:\n". $xmldoc->saveXML() ."</xmp>";

After adding the node I get this:

<data>
  <udate>1347730639</udate>
  <userid>3</userid>
<popup>0</popup></data>

I want it to be like this:

<data>
  <udate>1347730639</udate>
  <userid>3</userid>
  <popup>0</popup>
</data>

Where do I go wrong?

Please help and thanks in advance 🙂

Answer 1

createElement will break formatOutput this is a general issue

See PHP BUG Report

• formatOutput does not work with saveHTML
• DOMDocument->formatOutput = true does not work

But you can have a work around by reloading and formatting it.

$xmldoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmldoc->loadXML('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<data>
  <udate>1347730639</udate>
  <userid>3</userid>
</data>');

echo "<xmp>OLD:\n". $xmldoc->saveXML() ."</xmp>";

$root = $xmldoc->firstChild;

$newElement = $xmldoc->createElement('popup');
$root->appendChild($newElement);
$newText = $xmldoc->createTextNode("0");
$newElement->appendChild($newText);



$xml = new DOMDocument();
$xml->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
$xml->formatOutput = true;
$xml->loadXML( $xmldoc->saveXML());
echo "<xmp>NEW:\n". $xml->saveXML()."</xmp>";

Output

OLD:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<data>
  <udate>1347730639</udate>
  <userid>3</userid>
</data>
NEW:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<data>
  <udate>1347730639</udate>
  <userid>3</userid>
  <popup>0</popup>
</data>