XMLElegant (for PHP)

(c) 2009 Bill Zeller

http://from.bz

(A Python version of this class can be found here)

XMLElegant is a PHP class that allows easy generation of XML. While SimpleXML provides a convenient way of reading XML files, I haven't seen a similar tool to help with XML generation.

As a quick example, the following XML:

<books>
    <book>
        <title>Title 1</title>
        <author>Author 1</author>
        <isbn>isbn 1</isbn>
    </book>
    <book>
        <title>Title 2</title>
        <author>Author 2</author>
        <isbn>isbn 2</isbn>
    </book>
    <book>
        <title>Title 3</title>
        <author>Author 3</author>
        <isbn>isbn 3</isbn>
    </book>
    ...
</books>    

can be generated by:

<?php
$x = new XMLegant();

for($i=0;$i<5;$i++)
    $x->books->book()->title("Title $i")
                     ->author("Author $i")
                     ->isbn("isbn $i");

echo $x->toXML();
?>

The following XML: c d f g o

can be generated by either:

<?php
$x = new XMLegant();

$x->a->b = 'c'; 
$x->a->b[] = 'd';
$x->a->e = 'f';
$x->a->b[] = 'g';
$x->a->h->i['j'] = 'k';
$x->a->h->l->m;
$x->a->h->n = 'o';
?>

or:

<?php
$x = new XMLegant();

$x->a()
    ->b('c')
    ->b('d')
    ->e('f')
    ->b('g')
    ->h()
      ->i('j', 'k')
      ->l()
        ->m('')
        ->getParent()
      ->n('o');
?>

Many more examples are available in demo.php. Also, XMLegant_Tests.php consists of a number of unit tests that may be useful as a guide.