Change XML node element value in PHP and save file.

Question

<testimonials>
    <testimonial id="4c050652f0c3e">
        <nimi>John</nimi>
        <email>[email protected]</email>
        <text>Some text</text>
        <active>1</active>
        </testimonial>
    <testimonial id="4c05085e1cd4f">
        <name>ats</name>
        <email>[email protected]</email>
        <text>Great site!</text>
        <active>0</akctive>
    </testimonial>
</testimonials>

I have this XML strcuture and i need to find a testimonial with specific id and change its value and save file. I have a PHP script deleting specific testimonial according its ID:

<?php
$xmlFile = file_get_contents('test.xml');
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlFile);

$kust_id = $_GET["id"];

foreach($xml->testimonial as $story) {
    if($story['id'] == $kust_id) {
        $dom=dom_import_simplexml($story);
        $dom->parentNode->removeChild($dom);

        $xml->asXML('test.xml');
        header("Location: newfile.php");
    }
}
?>

Answer 1

You can use XPath to find the specific element. SimpleXMLElement->xpath() returns an array of (matching) SimpleXMLElement objects, i.e. you can access and change the data of each element just like you would in "your" foreach loop.

<?php
// $testimonials = simplexml_load_file('test.xml');
$testimonials = new SimpleXMLElement('<testimonials>
    <testimonial id="4c050652f0c3e">
        <nimi>John</nimi>
        <email>[email protected]</email>
        <text>Some text</text>
        <active>1</active>
        </testimonial>
    <testimonial id="4c05085e1cd4f">
        <name>ats</name>
        <email>[email protected]</email>
        <text>Great site!</text>
        <active>0</active>
    </testimonial>
</testimonials>');

// there can be only one item with a specific id, but foreach doesn't hurt here
foreach( $testimonials->xpath("testimonial[@id='4c05085e1cd4f']") as $t ) {
  $t->name = 'LALALA';
}

echo $testimonials->asXML();
// $testimonials->asXML('test.xml');

prints

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<testimonials>
    <testimonial id="4c050652f0c3e">
        <nimi>John</nimi>
        <email>[email protected]</email>
        <text>Some text</text>
        <active>1</active>
        </testimonial>
    <testimonial id="4c05085e1cd4f">
        <name>LALALA</name>
        <email>[email protected]</email>
        <text>Great site!</text>
        <active>0</active>
    </testimonial>
</testimonials>