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XXV. DOM XML functions

Introduction

Warning

This extension is EXPERIMENTAL. The behaviour of this extension, including the names of its functions, and anything else documented about this extension may change in a future release of PHP without notice. Be warned and use this extension at your own risk.

The domxml extension has been overhauled in PHP Version 4.3.0 in favour of a better compliance of the DOM standard. The extension still contains many old functions, but they should not be used anymore. Especially those non object oriented functions should be avoided.

The extension allows you to operate on an XML document with the DOM API. It also provides a function domxml_xmltree() to turn the complete XML document into a tree of PHP objects. Currently this tree should be considered read-only - you can modify it but this would not make any sense since DomDocument_dump_mem() cannot be applied to it. Therefore, if you want to read an XML file and write a modified version use the DomDocument_create_element(), DomDocument_create_text_node(), set_attribute(), etc. and finally DomDocument_dump_mem() functions.

Requirements

This extension is only available if PHP was configured with --with-dom=[DIR], using the GNOME xml library. You will need at least libxml-2.2.7

Deprecated functions

There a quite some functions which do not fit into the DOM standard and should not be used anymore as listed in the following table. The function DomNode_append_child() has changed its behaviour. It now actually adds a child and not a sibling. If this breaks your application use the non DOM function DomNode_append_sibling().

Table 1. Deprecated functions and its replacements

Old function	New function
xmldoc	domxml_open_mem()
xmldocfiel	domxml_open_file()
domxml_new_xmldoc	domxml_new_doc()
domxml_dump_mem	DomDocument_dump_mem()
domxml_dump_mem_file	DomDocument_dump_file()
DomDocument_dump_mem_file	DomDocument_dump_file()
DomDocument_add_root	DomDocument_create_element() followed by DomNode_append_child()
DomDocument_dtd	DomDocument_doctype()
DomDocument_root	DomDocument_document_element()
DomDocument_children	DomNode_child_nodes()
DomDocument_imported_node	No replacement.
DomNode_add_child	Create a new node with e.g. DomDocument_create_element() und add it with DomNode_append_child().
DomNode_children	DomNode_child_nodes()
DomNode_parent	DomNode_parent_node()
DomNode_new_child	Create a new node with e.g. DomDocument_create_element() und add it with DomNode_append_child().
DomNode_set_content	Create a new node with e.g. DomDocument_create_text_node() und add it with DomNode_append_child().
DomNode_get_content	Content is just a text node and can be accessed with DomNode_child_nodes().
DomNode_set_content	Content is just a text node and can be added with DomNode_append_child().

Constants

This module defines the following constants:

Table 2. XML constants

Constant	Value	Description
XML_ELEMENT_NODE	1	Node is an element
XML_ATTRIBUTE_NODE	2	Node is an attribute
XML_TEXT_NODE	3	Node is a piece of text
XML_CDATA_SECTION_NODE	4
XML_ENTITY_REF_NODE	5
XML_ENTITY_NODE	6	Node is an entity like
XML_PI_NODE	7	Node is a processing instruction
XML_COMMENT_NODE	8	Node is a comment
XML_DOCUMENT_NODE	9	Node is a document
XML_DOCUMENT_TYPE_NODE	10
XML_DOCUMENT_FRAG_NODE	11
XML_NOTATION_NODE	12
XML_GLOBAL_NAMESPACE	1
XML_LOCAL_NAMESPACE	2

Classes

The API of the module follows the DOM Level 2 standard as close as possible. Consequently the API is fully object oriented. It is a good idea to have the DOM standard available when using this module. Though the API is object oriented there are many functions which can be called in a non-object oriented way by passing the object to operate on as the first argument. These function are mainly to retain compatibilty to older versions of the extension but are not encouraged to use anymore in new developments.

This API differs from the official DOM API in two points. First, all class attributes are implemented as functions with the same name and secondly the function names follow the PHP naming convention. This means that a DOM function lastChild() will be written as last_child().

This module defines a number of classes, which are listed — including their method — in the following tables. Classes with an equivalent in the DOM Standard are named DOMxxx.

Table 3. List of classes

Class name	Parent classes
DomAttribute	DomNode
DomCData	DomNode
DomComment	DomCData : DomNode
DomDocument	DomNode
DomDocumentType	DomNode
DomElement	DomNode
DomEntity	DomNode
DomEntityReference	DomNode
DomProcessingInstruction	DomNode
DomText	DomCData : DomNode
Parser	Currently still called DomParser
XPathContext

Table 4. DomDocument class (DomDocument : DomNode)

Method name	Function name	Remark
doctype	DomDocument_doctype()
document_elemnent	DomDocument_document_element()
create_element	DomDocument_create_element()
create_text_node	DomDocument_create_text_node()
create_comment	DomDocument_create_comment()
create_cdata_section	DomDocument_create_cdata_section()
create_processing_instruction	DomDocument_create_processing_instruction()
create_attribute	DomDocument_create_attribute()
create_entity_reference	DomDocument_create_entity_reference()
get_elements_by_tagname	DomDocument_get_elements_by_tagname()
get_element_by_id	DomDocument_get_element_by_id()
dump_mem	DomDocument_dump_mem()	not DOM standard
dump_file	DomDocument_dump_file()	not DOM standard
html_dump_mem	DomDocument_html_dump_mem()	not DOM standard
xpath_init	xpath_init	not DOM standard
xpath_new_context	xpath_new_context	not DOM standard
xptr_new_context	xptr_new_context	not DOM standard

Table 5. DomElement class (DomElement : DomNode)

Method name	Function name	Remark
tagname	DomElement_tagname()
get_attribute	DomElement_get_attribute()
set_attribute	DomElement_set_attribute()
remove_attribute	DomElement_remove_attribute()
get_attribute_node	DomElement_get_attribute_node()
set_attribute_node	DomElement_set_attribute_node()
get_elements_by_tagname	DomElement_get_elements_by_tagname()
has_attribute	DomElement_has_attribute()

Table 6. DomNode class

Method name	Remark
DomNode_node_name()
DomNode_node_value()
DomNode_node_type()
DomNode_last_child()
DomNode_first_child()
DomNode_child_nodes()
DomNode_previous_sibling()
DomNode_next_sibling()
DomNode_parent_node()
DomNode_owner_document()
DomNode_insert_before()
DomNode_append_child()
DomNode_append_sibling()	Not in DOM standard. This function emulates the former behaviour of DomNode_append_child().
DomNode_remove_child()
DomNode_has_child_nodes()
DomNode_has_attributes()
DomNode_clone_node()
DomNode_attributes()
DomNode_unlink_node()	Not in DOM standard
DomNode_replace_node()	Not in DOM standard
DomNode_set_content()	Not in DOM standard, deprecated
DomNode_get_content()	Not in DOM standard, deprecated
DomNode_dump_node()	Not in DOM standard
DomNode_is_blank_node()	Not in DOM standard

Table 7. DomAttribute class (DomAttribute : DomNode)

Method name		Remark
name	DomAttribute_name()
value	DomAttribute_value()
specified	DomAttribute_specified()

Table 8. DomProcessingInstruction class (DomProcessingInstruction : DomNode)

Method name	Function name	Remark
target	DomProcessingInstruction_target()
data	DomProcessingInstruction_data()

Table 9. Parser class

Method name	Function name	Remark
add_chunk	Parser_add_chunk()
end	Parser_end()

Table 10. XPathContext class

Method name	Function name	Remark
eval	XPathContext_eval()
eval_expression	XPathContext_eval_expression()
register_ns	XPathContext_register_ns()

Table 11. DomDocumentType class (DomDocumentType : DomNode)

Method name	Function name	Remark
name	DomDocumentType_name()
entities	DomDocumentType_entities()
notations	DomDocumentType_notations()
public_id	DomDocumentType_public_id()
system_id	DomDocumentType_system_id()
internal_subset	DomDocumentType_internal_subset()

The classes DomDtd is derived from DomNode. DomComment is derived from DomCData

Examples

Many examples in this reference require a xml string. Instead of repeating this string in any example it will be put into a file and be included by each example. This include file is shown in the following example section. You could also create an xml document read it with DomDocument_open_file().

Example 1. Include file example.inc with xml string
<?php $xmlstr = "<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?> <!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM '/share/sgml/Norman_Walsh/db3xml10/db3xml10.dtd' [ <!ENTITY sp \"spanish\"> ]>  <chapter language='en'><title language='en'>Title</title> <para language='ge'> &sp;  <informaltable ID='findme' language='&sp;'> <tgroup cols='3'> <tbody> <row><entry>a1</entry><entry morerows='1'>b1</entry><entry>c1</entry></row> <row><entry>a2</entry><entry>c2</entry></row> <row><entry>a3</entry><entry>b3</entry><entry>c3</entry></row> </tbody> </tgroup> </informaltable> </para> </chapter>"; ?>

Table of Contents
DomAttribute->name -- Returns name of attribute
DomAttribute->specified -- Checks if attribute is specified
DomAttribute->value -- Returns value of attribute
DomDocument->add_root [deprecated] -- Adds a root node
DomDocument->create_attribute -- Create new attribute
DomDocument->create_cdata_section -- Create new cdata node
DomDocument->create_comment -- Create new comment node
DomDocument->create_element -- Create new element node
DomDocument->create_entity_reference --
DomDocument->create_processing_instruction -- Creates new PI node
DomDocument->create_text_node -- Create new text node
DomDocument->doctype -- Returns the document type
DomDocument->document_element -- Returns root element node
DomDocument->dump_file -- Dumps the internal XML tree back into a file
DomDocument->dump_mem -- Dumps the internal XML tree back into a string
DomDocument->get_element_by_id -- Searches for an element with a certain id
DomDocument->get_elements_by_tagname --
DomDocument->html_dump_mem -- Dumps the internal XML tree back into a string as HTML
DomDocumentType->entities -- Returns list of entities
DomDocumentType->internal_subset -- Returns internal subset
DomDocumentType->name -- Returns name of document type
DomDocumentType->notations -- Returns list of notations
DomDocumentType->public_id -- Returns public id of document type
DomDocumentType->system_id -- Returns system id of document type
DomElement->get_attribute -- Returns value of attribute
DomElement->get_attribute_node -- Returns value of attribute
DomElement->get_elements_by_tagname -- Adds new attribute
DomElement->has_attribute -- Adds new attribute
DomElement->remove_attribute -- Adds new attribute
DomElement->set_attribute -- Adds new attribute
DomElement->set_attribute_node -- Adds new attribute
DomElement->tagname -- Returns name of element
DomNode->append_child -- Adds new child at the end of the children
DomNode->append_sibling -- Adds new sibling to a node
DomNode->attributes -- Returns list of attributes
DomNode->child-nodes -- Returns children of node
DomNode->clone_node -- Clones a node
DomNode->dump_node -- Dumps a single node
DomNode->first_child -- Returns first child of node
DomNode->get_content -- Gets content of node
DomNode->has_attributess -- Checks if node has attributes
DomNode->has_child_nodes -- Checks if node has children
DomNode->insert_before -- Inserts new node as child
DomNode->is_blank_node -- Checks if node is blank
DomNode->last_child -- Returns last child of node
DomNode->next_sibling -- Returns the next sibling of node
DomNode->node_name -- Returns name of node
DomNode->node_type -- Returns type of node
DomNode->node_value -- Returns value of a node
DomNode->owner_document -- Returns the document this node belongs to
DomNode->parent_node -- Returns the parent of the node
DomNode->prefix -- Returns name space prefix of node
DomNode->previous_sibling -- Returns the previous sibling of node
DomNode->remove_child -- Removes child from list of children
DomNode->replace_child -- Replaces a child
DomNode->replace_node -- Replaces node
DomNode->set_content -- Sets content of node
DomNode->set_name -- Sets name of node
DomNode->unlink_node -- Deletes node
DomProcessingInstruction->data -- Returns data of pi node
DomProcessingInstruction->target -- Returns target of pi node
domxml_new_doc -- Creates new empty XML document
domxml_open_file -- Creates a DOM object from XML file
domxml_open_mem -- Creates a DOM object of an XML document
domxml_version -- Get XML library version
domxml_xmltree -- Creates a tree of PHP objects from an XML document
xpath_eval -- Evaluates the XPath Location Path in the given string
xpath_eval_expression -- Evaluates the XPath Location Path in the given string
xpath_new_context -- Creates new xpath context
xptr_eval -- Evaluate the XPtr Location Path in the given string
xptr_new_context -- Create new XPath Context

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