How to remove XML elements and all children? - php

Question

I need to read an XML file and delete all the elements named <images> and all the children associated. I have found similar old questions that did not work. What am I doing wrong? Is there a better method?
XML:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<settings>
<background_color>#000000</background_color>
<show_context_menu>yes</show_context_menu>
<image>
<thumb_path>210x245.png</thumb_path>
<big_image_path>620x930.png</big_image_path>
</image>
<image>
<thumb_path>200x295.png</thumb_path>
<big_image_path>643x950.png</big_image_path>
</image>
</settings>
PHP:
$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->load('test.xml');
$thedocument = $dom->documentElement;
$elements = $thedocument->getElementsByTagName('image');
foreach ($elements as $node) {
$node->parentNode->removeChild($node);
}
$save = $dom->saveXML();
file_put_contents('test.xml', $save)

Answer 1

I figured it out after a good night of sleep. It was quite simple actually.
$xml = simplexml_load_file('test.xml');
unset($xml->image);
$xml_file = $xml->asXML();
$xmlFile = 'test.xml';
$xmlHandle = fopen($xmlFile, 'w');
fwrite($xmlHandle, $xml_file);
fclose($xmlHandle);
Edit: You probably want to make it save directly:
$file = 'test.xml';
$xml = simplexml_load_file($file);
unset($xml->image);
$success = $xml->asXML($file);
See SimpleXMLElement::asXML()Docs.

Answer 2

In the PHP Manual page (where you should always go 1st :-) one awesome contributor points out that:
You can't remove DOMNodes from a DOMNodeList as you're iterating over them in a foreach loop.
Then goes on to offer a potential solution. Try something like this instead:
<?php
$domNodeList = $domDocument->getElementsByTagname('p');
$domElemsToRemove = array();
foreach ( $domNodeList as $domElement ) {
// ...do stuff with $domElement...
$domElemsToRemove[] = $domElement;
}
foreach( $domElemsToRemove as $domElement ){
$domElement->parentNode->removeChild($domElement);
}
?>

Answer 3

First of all, your XML is broken, see <thumb>...</thumb_path>and next line as well -> fix it!
Then, real simple in 3 lines of code:
$xml = simplexml_load_string($x); // $x holds your xml
$count = $xml->image->count()-1;
for ($i = $count;$i >= 0;$i--) unset($xml->image[$i]);
See live demo # http://codepad.viper-7.com/HkGy5o