XML cleaning [xml:space] using PHP

Question

How to remove all nodes like xml:space="preserve" from XML, to get clean result

old XML

<table>
<actor xml:space="preserve"> </actor>
</table>

I want result be like this

<table>
<actor> </actor>
</table>

EDIT

this the php code

function produce_XML_object_tree($raw_XML) {
    libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
    try {
        $xmlTree = new SimpleXMLElement($raw_XML);
    } catch (Exception $e) {
        // Something went wrong.
        $error_message = 'SimpleXMLElement threw an exception.';
        foreach(libxml_get_errors() as $error_line) {
            $error_message .= "\t" . $error_line->message;
        }
        trigger_error($error_message);
        return false;
    }
    return $xmlTree;
}
$xml_feed_url = "www.xmlpage.com/web.xml";
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $xml_feed_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$xml = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$cont = produce_XML_object_tree($xml);

echo json_encode($cont);

Have you made any attempts? What was the result? What did you try to fix it? — Ohgodwhy, Mar 14 '15 at 21:43
@Rizier123 I convert XML result to JSON from a web. But when it converted if any field has xml:space it return error — haz azezan, Mar 14 '15 at 21:44
What is the php code generating the xml. I assume it is a php code, isn't it? — valiD, Mar 14 '15 at 21:45
Coding language and existing code please. "I want to write my name in capital laters" For "VALID" - just pressed CAPS You only have to press delete "xml:space="preserve"" if those are the only details you are wiling to offer. — valiD, Mar 14 '15 at 21:50
maybe with `str_replace` http://php.net/manual/en/function.str-replace.php — steven, Mar 14 '15 at 21:51
did you follow the link? there are many examples.... however: `$xml = str_replace('xml:space="preserve"', "", $xml);` — steven, Mar 14 '15 at 21:53

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 14 '15 at 21:53

Use an xpath expression to locate the attributes and remove them.

Example:

//$xml = your xml string

$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadXML($xml);
$xpath = new DOMXPath($dom);

foreach ($xpath->query('//@xml:space') as $attr) {
    $attr->ownerElement->removeAttributeNode($attr);
}

echo $dom->saveXML();

Output:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<table>
<actor> </actor>
</table>

This will remove any xml:space attributes. If you want to target only those xml:space attributes that have a value of "preserve", change the query to //@xml:space[.="preserve"].

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 14 '15 at 21:54

$string = str_ireplace('xml:space="preserve"','',$string);

function produce_XML_object_tree($raw_XML) {
    libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
    try {
        $xmlTree = new SimpleXMLElement($raw_XML);
    } catch (Exception $e) {
        // Something went wrong.
        $error_message = 'SimpleXMLElement threw an exception.';
        foreach(libxml_get_errors() as $error_line) {
            $error_message .= "\t" . $error_line->message;
        }
        trigger_error($error_message);
        return false;
    }
    return str_ireplace('xml:space="preserve"','',$xmlTree;);
}
$xml_feed_url = "www.xmlpage.com/web.xml";
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $xml_feed_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$xml = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$cont = produce_XML_object_tree($xml);

echo json_encode($cont);

@valiD doesn't work return like this "\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n" — haz azezan, Mar 14 '15 at 22:03

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:56

As long as you're concerned to remove all attribute-nodes that are with a namespace prefix, you can do so by selecting them via xpath and remove them from the XML document.

The xpath query for all attributes with a prefix can be obtained by comparing the name (that is prefix and local-name) with the local-name (that is the local-name only). If it differs you've got a match:

//@*[name(.) != local-name(.)]

Querying specific nodes with SimpleXML and XPath to delete them has been outlined earlier as an answer to the question Remove a child with a specific attribute, in SimpleXML for PHP (Nov 2008) and is pretty straight-forward by using the SimpleXML-Self-Reference:

$xml = simplexml_load_string($buffer);
foreach ($xml->xpath('//@*[name(.) != local-name(.)]') as $attr) {
    unset($attr[0]);
}

The self-reference here is to remove the attribute $attr via $attr[0].

Full Example:

$buffer = <<<XML
<table>
<actor class="foo" xml:space="preserve"> </actor>
</table>
XML;

$xml = simplexml_load_string($buffer);
foreach ($xml->xpath('//@*[name(.) != local-name(.)]') as $attr) {
    unset($attr[0]);
}
echo $xml->asXML();

Example Output:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<table>
<actor class="foo"> </actor>
</table>

XML cleaning [xml:space] using PHP

3 Answers3

Example:

Output: