php->xml using DOM, prints all on the same line, server config or intended?

Question

I'm using php DOM to build an XML file of data, it works fine but it all outputs on one line, like so:

<property><something><somethingelse>dfs</somethingelse></something></property>

However in all examples I've found it's outputting properly, like so:

<property>
    <something>
       <somethingelse>
           dfs
       </somethingelse>
    </something>
</property>

Now I know I can force a new line with \n and \t for tab but I don't want to do this unless necessary. So, my question:

Is my server config (for some reason) forcing it to output on the same line, or is something else happening? All examples of this in use show no new line usage and they show new lines, so I think something is wrong.

I am declaring

header('Content-Type: text/xml');

Answer 1

Set the formatOutput attribute in your DOMDocument object to true:

$domDocument->formatOutput = true;

Answer 2

By default, DOM won't add extra whitespace to your document. You can ask it to by setting

$doc->formatOutput = true;

See the corresponding entry in the manual.

It will not add whitespace to text nodes though, so the "dfs" in your example will not get indented this way.