simplexml and CDATA

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

mandric@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</i> HTML 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 <gklein@xs4all.nl>

Gertjan Klein wrote:
> mandric@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</i> HTML 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.