PHP simpleXML how to save the file in a formatted way?

Question

I'm trying add some data to an existing XML file using PHP's SimpleXML. The problem is it adds all the data in a single line:

<name>blah</name><class>blah</class><area>blah</area> ...

And so on. All in a single line. How to introduce line breaks?

How do I make it like this?

<name>blah</name>
<class>blah</class>
<area>blah</area>

I am using asXML() function.

Thanks.

Answer 1

You could use the DOMDocument class to reformat your code:

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

Answer 2

There's also the PEAR XML_Beautifier package.

Answer 3

Use dom_import_simplexml to convert to a DomElement. Then use its capacity to format output.

$dom = dom_import_simplexml($simple_xml);
$dom->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
$dom->formatOutput = true;
echo $dom->documentElement->saveXML($dom);

Answer 4

Gumbo's solution does the trick. You can do work with simpleXml above and then add this at the end to echo and/or save it with formatting.

Code below echos it and saves it to a file (see comments in code and remove whatever you don't want):

//Format XML to save indented tree rather than one line
$dom = new DOMDocument('1.0');
$dom->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
$dom->formatOutput = true;
$dom->loadXML($simpleXml->asXML());
//Echo XML - remove this and following line if echo not desired
echo $dom->saveXML();
//Save XML to file - remove this and following line if save not desired
$dom->save('fileName.xml');

Answer 5

Cool solution Gumbo