How to Add a Node to Existing XML Document or String Using PHP?

You can add a new node to an XML document (or string) using PHP SimpleXMLElement object like so:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlStr);
$xml->addChild('nodeName', 'value');
// ...

For example, let's suppose you have the following XML:

$xmlStr =<<<XML
<?xml version="1.0"?>
    <message>
        <to>[email protected]</to>
        <subject>Hello World!</subject>
        <body>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.</body>
        <attachments>
            <file>1.jpg</file>
        </attachments>
    </message>
XML;

To add a new node to the XML, you would do the following:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlStr);

// add new node to the end
$xml->addChild('from', '[email protected]');

// add new node to existing `attachments` node
$xml->attachments->addChild('file', '2.jpg');

// save changes
$xml->asXML();

This would result in the following XML:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<message>
    <to>[email protected]</to>
    <subject>Hello World!</subject>
    <body>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.</body>
    <attachments>
        <file>1.jpg</file>
        <file>2.jpg</file>
    </attachments>
    <from>[email protected]</from>
</message>

It is also possible to add attributes or nested child nodes to the new child node you intend to add.

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