simplexml and CDATA

[mandric]

Hello,

Can someone please enlighten me on how to preserve the <![CDATA[]]>
element when parsing an xml file or string with simplexml. I'm using
libxml 2.6.16 and php 5.1.4.

I tried a few variations, I found at
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/functio...oad-string.php

$xml = simplexml_load_string($newsMLString, 'SimpleXMLElement',
LIBXML_NOCDATA);
echo $xml->asXML();

$xml = simplexml_load_string($newsMLString);
echo $xml->asXML();

$xml = simplexml_load_file('include/newsMLSpecs.xml');
echo $xml->asXML();

$xml = simplexml_load_file('include/newsMLSpecs.xml',
'SimpleXMLElement', LIBXML_NOCDATA);
echo $xml->asXML();

In all cases the CDATA element is stripped out. I don't understand why
an xml parser would do that by default? It could be my setup but not
sure.

I'm using the NewsML spec found here:
http://public.yahoo.com/~ron/news/specs.xml

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Milan

[Gertjan Klein]

ma*****@gmail.com wrote:

>Can someone please enlighten me on how to preserve the <![CDATA[]]>
element when parsing an xml file or string with simplexml. I'm using
libxml 2.6.16 and php 5.1.4.

As far as I've been able to find out this is not possible. However, I
don't think there is a *functional* difference between preserving the
CDATA and what simplexml does. In CDATA sections, you can include e.g.
<i>some</iHTML elements as-is. They, when parsing, will not result in
separate nodes in the resulting DOM. The XML that $xml->asXML()
generates, escapes the reserved characters (<, >, &) instead. As far as
I can tell this results in functionally the same XML.

Of course, it would be nice if simplexml would remember that a given
element originally held CDATA contents and output it as such. Perhaps
you can file an enhancement request for this.

Gertjan.
--
Gertjan Klein <gk****@xs4all.nl>

[mandric]

Gertjan Klein wrote:

ma*****@gmail.com wrote:

Can someone please enlighten me on how to preserve the <![CDATA[]]>
element when parsing an xml file or string with simplexml. I'm using
libxml 2.6.16 and php 5.1.4.

As far as I've been able to find out this is not possible. However, I
don't think there is a *functional* difference between preserving the
CDATA and what simplexml does. In CDATA sections, you can include e.g.
<i>some</iHTML elements as-is. They, when parsing, will not result in
separate nodes in the resulting DOM. The XML that $xml->asXML()
generates, escapes the reserved characters (<, >, &) instead. As far as
I can tell this results in functionally the same XML.

Of course, it would be nice if simplexml would remember that a given
element originally held CDATA contents and output it as such. Perhaps
you can file an enhancement request for this.

I think the answer is use DOM if your needs are not simple. ;)
Which should be available if SimpleXML is.
http://us3.php.net/manual/en/ref.dom.php

Thanks Gertjan.