Formatting SimpleXMLElement

Question

According to this answer it is possible to echo out formatted xml. Yet this php code:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><data></data>");
$xml->addChild("child1", "value1");
$xml->addChild("child2", "value2");

$dom = new DOMDocument('1.0');
$dom->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
$dom->formatOutput = true;
$dom->loadXML($xml->asXML());
echo $dom->saveXML();

outputs value1 value2

So how do I format it correctly nowadays?

Where are you testing it? If from your browser, you see above output because the browser interprete the xml code. Check the page source! Your code works fine, I have tested it! — fusion3k, Jan 30 '16 at 13:55
@splash58 Page source does get the result I am after. But I want it to output like that just on the page, not necessarily the colors though. `
` just puts the values below each other. — Madmenyo, Jan 30 '16 at 13:55
@fusion3k Testing it on localhost. I know the code works, I'm sending the xml to an app but I want to see the xml in a browser as well (without using page source). — Madmenyo, Jan 30 '16 at 13:57
You want see xml code in the standard html page? If yes, try `echo htmlentities($dom->saveXML());` **Better:** `echo '
'.htmlentities($dom->saveXML()).'
';` — fusion3k, Jan 30 '16 at 13:58

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 30 '16 at 14:09

To echo out formatted XML (or HTML) you have to use htmlentities built-in function, that “convert all applicable characters to HTML entities”.

In your case:

echo htmlentities($dom->saveXML());

will output this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <data> <child1>value1</child1> <child2>value2</child2> </data>

Using-it together with <pre> html tag, also newlines and spaces will be printed:

echo '<pre>' . htmlentities($dom->saveXML()) . '</pre>';

will output this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<data>
    <child1>value1</child1>
    <child2>value2</child2>
</data>

Formatting SimpleXMLElement

1 Answers1