How to write CDATA using SimpleXmlElement?

quantme picture quantme · Jun 7, 2011 · Viewed 54k times · Source

I have this code to create and update xml file:

<?php
$xmlFile    = 'config.xml';
$xml        = new SimpleXmlElement('<site/>');
$xml->title = 'Site Title';
$xml->title->addAttribute('lang', 'en');
$xml->saveXML($xmlFile);
?>

This generates the following xml file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<site>
  <title lang="en">Site Title</title>
</site>

The question is: is there a way to add CDATA with this method/technique to create xml code below?

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<site>
  <title lang="en"><![CDATA[Site Title]]></title>
</site>

Answer

quantme picture quantme · Jun 7, 2011

Got it! I adapted the code from this great solution (archived version):

<?php
// http://coffeerings.posterous.com/php-simplexml-and-cdata
class SimpleXMLExtended extends SimpleXMLElement {
  public function addCData($cdata_text) {
    $node = dom_import_simplexml($this); 
    $no   = $node->ownerDocument; 
    $node->appendChild($no->createCDATASection($cdata_text)); 
  } 
}

$xmlFile    = 'config.xml';
// instead of $xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<site/>');
$xml        = new SimpleXMLExtended('<site/>');
$xml->title = NULL; // VERY IMPORTANT! We need a node where to append
$xml->title->addCData('Site Title');
$xml->title->addAttribute('lang', 'en');
$xml->saveXML($xmlFile);
?>

XML file generated:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<site>
  <title lang="en"><![CDATA[Site Title]]></title>
</site>

Thank you Petah