PHP - Finding and removing an XML node via DOM - php

Question

Can anyone please point out why the PHP below isn't deleting the XML node?
I'm wanting to delete the entire image node that contains the original_number value of 823.
Thanks in advance.
$xml = '<?xml version="1.0"?>
<property>
<edited>true</edited>
<images>
<image>
<is_required><![CDATA[true]]></is_required>
<original_number><![CDATA[823]]></original_number>
</image>
<image>
<is_required><![CDATA[true]]></is_required>
<original_number><![CDATA[555]]></original_number>
</image>
</images>
</property>';
$originalNumberToDelete = 823;
$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadXML( $xml->asXML(), LIBXML_NOBLANKS );
$dom->formatOutput = true;
$xpath = new DOMXPath($dom);
foreach( $xpath->query("property/images/image[original_number='".$originalNumberToDelete."']") as $node) {
$node->parentNode->removeChild($node);
}
echo $dom->saveXML();

Answer 1

Maybe a possible solution is to change
$dom->loadXML( $xml->asXML(), LIBXML_NOBLANKS );
to
$dom->loadXML( $xml, LIBXML_NOBLANKS );
Then start your xpath expression with a double forward slash:
$xml = '<?xml version="1.0"?>
<property>
<edited>true</edited>
<images>
<image>
<is_required><![CDATA[true]]></is_required>
<original_number><![CDATA[823]]></original_number>
</image>
<image>
<is_required><![CDATA[true]]></is_required>
<original_number><![CDATA[555]]></original_number>
</image>
</images>
</property>';
$originalNumberToDelete = 823;
$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadXML( $xml, LIBXML_NOBLANKS );
$dom->formatOutput = true;
$xpath = new DOMXPath($dom);
foreach( $xpath->query("//property/images/image[original_number='".$originalNumberToDelete."']") as $node) {
$node->parentNode->removeChild($node);
}
echo $dom->saveXML();
Demo