DOMDocument::importNode

(PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

DOMDocument::importNode — Import node into current document

Description

public DOMDocument::importNode(DOMNode $node, bool $deep = false): DOMNode|false

This function returns a copy of the node to import and associates it with the current document.

Parameters

node: The node to import.
deep: If set to true, this method will recursively import the subtree under the node.

Note:
To copy the nodes attributes deep needs to be set to true

Return Values

The copied node or false, if it cannot be copied.

Errors/Exceptions

DOMException is thrown if node cannot be imported.

Examples

Example #1 DOMDocument::importNode() example

Copying nodes between documents.

<?php

$orgdoc = new DOMDocument;
$orgdoc->loadXML("<root><element><child>text in child</child></element></root>");

// The node we want to import to a new document
$node = $orgdoc->getElementsByTagName("element")->item(0);


// Create a new document
$newdoc = new DOMDocument;
$newdoc->formatOutput = true;

// Add some markup
$newdoc->loadXML("<root><someelement>text in some element</someelement></root>");

echo "The 'new document' before copying nodes into it:\n";
echo $newdoc->saveXML();

// Import the node, and all its children, to the document
$node = $newdoc->importNode($node, true);
// And then append it to the "<root>" node
$newdoc->documentElement->appendChild($node);

echo "\nThe 'new document' after copying the nodes into it:\n";
echo $newdoc->saveXML();
?>

The above example will output:

The 'new document' before copying nodes into it:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <someelement>text in some element</someelement>
</root>

The 'new document' after copying the nodes into it:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <someelement>text in some element</someelement>
  <element>
    <child>text in child</child>
  </element>
</root>

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User Contributed Notes 11 notes

down

rikdnua at mail dot ru ¶

11 years ago

The behavior of importNode($node, false) is different in PHP 5.2.9-2 and PHP 5.2.17.

The second option is explicitly set to false. In PHP 5.2.9-2 importNode() imports the elements WITHOUT attributes. In PHP 5.2.17 the elements imported ALONG with their attributes. 

<?php

$xml="

<html>

<a href='yandex.com'>Yandex.com</a>

<a href='rik.dn.ua'>RiK.dn.ua</a>

</html>

";

$doc=new domDocument('1.0');

$doc->loadXML($xml);

$list=$doc->getElementsByTagName('a');

$doc1=new domDocument('1.0');

$doc1->formatOutput=true;

for($i=0; $i<$list->length; $i++) $doc1->appendChild($doc1->importNode($list->item($i), false));

$doc1->save('file.xml');

?>



file.xml PHP 5.2.9-2

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<a/>

<a/>



file.xml PHP 5.2.17

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<a href="yandex.com"/>

<a href="rik.dn.ua"/>

down

mailme at sove dot nl ¶

16 years ago

DOMDocument->importNode with seconds argument false will leave attributes behind. To fix this:

$__DOM->importNode
   (
      $__INPUT->cloneNode(false), true
   );

$__DOM (DOMDocument) will import the $__INPUT node (DOMElement) INCLUDING attributes.

down

c dot 1 at smithies dot org ¶

15 years ago

Assume that $source and $dest are instances of DOMDocument. Assume that $sourcedoc contains an element with ID 'sourceID' and that $destdoc contains an element with ID 'destID'. Assume that we have already set up source and destination element variables thus:

<?php
 $src = $sourcedoc->getElementById('sourceID');
 $dst = $destdoc->getElementById('destID');
?>

Finally, assume that $sel has more than one child node.

In order to import the child elements of $src as children of $dst, you might do something like this:

<?php
$src = $dest->importNode($src, TRUE);

foreach ($src->childNodes as $el) $dst->appendChild($el);
?>

But this does not work. foreach gets confused, because (as noted below) appending an imported element to another existing element in the same document causes it to be removed from its current parent element.

Therefore, the following technique should be used:

<?php
foreach ($src->childNodes as $el) $dst->appendChild($destdoc->importNode($el, TRUE));
?>

down

Fitopaldi ¶

19 years ago

importNode returns a copy of the node to import and associates it with the current document, but not import the node to the current DOMDocument. Use appendChild for import the copy of the node to current DOMDocument.

<?
 $domNode = $dom->importNode($aDomNode, true);
 $currentDomDocument->appendChild($domNode);
?>

down

Colin ¶

18 years ago

As of PHP 5.1.6 with libxml 2.6.26 and DOM/XML API version 20031129, importNode() does nothing if attempting to import from the same document.  Meaning, if you do an $ret = importNode and then appendChild($ret) or insertBefore($ret, ...) then you will end up *moving* the node instead of ending up with a copy.

If you expect importNode to give you a copy of the source (in this case, a deep copy) then you must account for them being from the same document.  This function addresses this:

<?
// Import $b into $a's document
function myimport($a, $b)
{
  if ($a->ownerDocument->isSameNode($b->ownerDocument))
  {
    $temp = new DOMDocument();
    $ret = $temp->importNode($b, TRUE);
    return $a->ownerDocument->importNode($ret, TRUE);
  }
  else
  {
    return $a->ownerDocument->importNode($b, TRUE);
  }
}
?>

(Function was freshly coded for this note but I based it off another, working function of mine.)

This function checks if the documents are the same and uses a new document (guaranteed to be different this way) to force a copy into $temp and then force a copy back into $a->ownerDocument.

Obviously, no error checking has been done.

down

andy dot clark at dial dot pipex dot com ¶

18 years ago

One useful use of importNode is to copy one node onto another.

function CopyXMLNode($SourceNode,$DestNode)
 {
  if ($SourceNode->nodeName != '#text')
   {
     //Copy this node
    $node = $DestNode->ownerDocument->importNode($SourceNode, true);
    $node = $DestNode->appendChild($node);
    //Now copy the child nodes
    foreach ($SourceNode->childNodes AS $item)
     {
     $this->CopyXMLNode($item,$node);
     }
    }
  }

down

mark at 4inloop dot de ¶

17 years ago

When you left out the second argument or enter false, not only the child nodes are ommited. The attributes of the node are also cut off.

down

adjwilli ¶

18 years ago

Editing XML with PHP can be a pain in the Secretary of State Powell, so here's a script to replace an XML node with a user-provided one through the POST. It's usually a good idea to run the $_POST['xml'] through a validation check and clean it for other thing before running this.

Pretty much this script expects a user-provided node called $_POST['xml'] and the XPath of the node in the original document that you want to replace called $_POST['XPath']. It also loads the original XML document from $xml. The function nodeRunner begins with the root node of the document you're editting and the XPath for the root element (these are more to make recursion easy than anything else).

$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->loadXML($xml); // $xml expects an XML string
        
function nodeRunner ($node,$xpath) {
    global $doc;
    if ($xpath == $_POST['XPath']) {
            
        $xmlPost = new DOMDocument();
        $xmlPost->loadXML($_POST['xml']);
        
        $newNode = $doc->importNode($xmlPost->firstChild,true);
        
        $node->parentNode->replaceChild($newNode,$node);
    } else {
        
        $page = 1;
        $section = 1;
        
        if ($node->hasChildNodes()) {
            foreach ($node->childNodes as $nodling) {
                $nodeName = $nodling->nodeName;
                if ($nodeName == 'page' || $nodeName == 'section') {
                    nodeRunner ($nodling,$xpath."/".$nodeName."[".$$nodeName."]");
                    $$nodeName++;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
    
nodeRunner ($doc->documentElement,"/root[1]"); // /root should be explicit name of the root  element of the XPath
    
$doc->saveXML();

down

p dot reisinger at gmail dot com ¶

16 years ago

method (can be used as a function as well) that joins two xml files. first argument is parent xml (the one to be inserted into), second child (the one to be inserted) and third is optional argument that specifies the parent's tag where to insert children xml. If not specified then children is inserted as the last element, just before end of the root
<?php
    protected function joinXML($parent, $child, $tag = null)
    {
        $DOMChild = new DOMDocument;
        $DOMChild->loadXML($child);
        $node = $DOMChild->documentElement;
        
        $DOMParent = new DOMDocument;
        $DOMParent->formatOutput = true;
        $DOMParent->loadXML($parent);

        $node = $DOMParent->importNode($node, true);

        if ($tag !== null) {
            $tag = $DOMParent->getElementsByTagName($tag)->item(0);
            $tag->appendChild($node);
        } else {
            $DOMParent->documentElement->appendChild($node);
        }

        return $DOMParent->saveXML();
    }
?>

down

p dot reisinger at gmail dot com ¶

15 years ago

When you use function/method below, php automaticaly inserts namespaces (if you have some). If you want to join xml files exactly, then you can just use placeholders and treat xml as a string.
<?php
function joinXMLStrings($file1, $file2)
{
    //remove xml declaration
    $file2 = trim(preg_replace('/<\?xml.*\?>/', '', $file2, 1));

    //insert file2 in the place of placeholder in the first file
    $file1 = trim(preg_replace('/<\?file2\s\?>/', $file2, $file1, 1));
}
?>

so function looks like this and you insert two xml files. First file has to have placeholder (where you insert file2). Placeholder in this case will be <?file2 ?>

!!!this is only for ilustration - test before you use it

down

stomas ¶

18 years ago

I think this should do the same:

<?
 // Import $b into $a's document
 function myimport($a, $b)
 {
   if ($a->ownerDocument->isSameNode($b->ownerDocument))
   {
    return $b->cloneNode(TRUE);
   }
   else
   {
    return $a->ownerDocument->importNode($b, TRUE);
   }
 }
 ?>

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