Parsing xml document using PHP <![CDATA[...]]>

Question

I know this question is asked many times before but still can't find the desired result I have been looking for parsing xml document using php DOMDocument function.

Initially my xml document named 'local.xml' contains the following script

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<config>
    <global>
        <host><![CDATA[name123]]></host>
        <username><![CDATA[root45]]></username> 
    </global>
</config>

I want to change "<host><![CDATA[name123]]></host>" to "<host><![CDATA[name456]]></host>"

I have php code that can change the value inside tag. Here is the php code

<?php
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->load('local.xml');
$config = $doc->getElementsByTagName( "global" );
foreach( $config as $global )
{

    $hosts=$global->getElementsByTagName( "host" );
    $usernames=$global->getElementsByTagName( "username" );
    $a = "<![CDATA[name456]]>";
    $hosts1=$hosts->item(0)->nodeValue=$a;
}
$doc->save('local.xml');
?>

When i execute the above code, the output in the xml file is coming as

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<config>
    <global>
        <host>&lt;![CDATA[name456]]&gt;</host>
        <username><![CDATA[root45]]></username> 
    </global>
</config>

How can I convert "<" to "<" and ">" to ">" in xml document?

I have tried $a = htmlspecialchars("<![CDATA[name456]]>"); as well as $a = html_entity_decode("<![CDATA[name456]]>"); still it is giving the same output as seen above.

Daniel · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-06 13:48:45Z

3

Use DOMDocument::createCDATASection.

answered Sep 6, 2012 at 13:48

Daniel

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1 Comment

Arish Over a year ago

Thanks, after going through hours and hours of coding and many trails and errors with DOMDocuemtn::createCDATASection, im still stuck in this. I would be gratefull if you would provide me with code to implement this correctly

Arish · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-07 11:08:51Z

Finally After some more hours and hours of trails and errors, I managed to solve it. Had Daniel Sloof not shown the tip, my code would have been useless. Thanks Daniel Sloof

here is the final code

<?php
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->load('local.xml');
$config = $doc->getElementsByTagName( "global" );
foreach( $config as $global )
{
    $hosts=$global->getElementsByTagName( "host" );
    $oldcdata=$hosts->item(0)->nodeValue="";
    $newcdata=$doc->createCDATASection("name456");
    $hosts1=$hosts->item(0)->appendChild($newcdata);
}
$doc->save('local.xml');
?>

By adding null value to $oldcdata it will empty the value inside <host><![CDATA[name123]]></host> tag this will become <host></host> in xml file

Now we add a new value to $newcdata it will then be appended to <host></host> by using appendChild($newcdata) and it will become <host><![CDATA[name456]]></host>

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