Easily Read and Write XML in PHP

Last updated on November 2nd, 2023 by Paul Redmond

XML Wrangler has been built with developer experience in mind - you can read any type of XML file, even with complex namespaces and even large XML files. It will also throw exceptions if the XML is invalid!

XML Wrangler is a simplistic PHP library designed to make reading and writing XML easy. Using familiar Laravel-like methods, this package is framework-agnostic and can be used in any PHP project (>=v8.1). XML Wrangler is jam-packed with features that make working with XML much more enjoyable than the out-of-the-box PHP experience:

Dot Notation: Using dot-notation to query an XML document
Low memory usage: XML Wrangler can handle reading large XML files
Laravel-like: methods that you can use like sole, first, firstOrFail, collect, etc.
Lazy methods: Read massive XML files and loop over each node in a loop
XML Generation: Write XML using arrays
XML Parsing: Provides functionality to parse XML documents.
DTOs: Use the Element DTO element to define attributes and namespaces
Error Handling: It has proper error handling unlike SimpleXML
XPath Queries: Supports XPath queries to extract data from XML.
Editing and Manipulation: Enables the modification and manipulation of XML data.
Simple API: Offers a straightforward API for working with XML.
Namespace Support: Handles XML namespaces.

You will want to check out the readme to learn about everything you can do with this package, but here's an example of reading XML:

<?php
 
use Saloon\XmlWrangler\XmlReader;
 
$reader = XmlReader::fromString($xml);
 
// Retrieve all values as one simple array
$reader->values();
// ['breakfast_menu' => [['name' => '...'], ['name' => '...'], ...]
 
// Use dot-notation to find a specific element
$reader->value('food.0')->sole();
// ['name' => 'Belgian Waffles', 'price' => '$5.95', ...]
 
// Use the element method to get a simple Element DTO containing attributes and content
$reader->element('food.0')->sole(); // Element::class
 
// Use XPath to query the XML
$reader->xpathValue('//food[@bestSeller="true"]/name')->get();
// ['Belgian Waffles', 'Berry-Berry Belgian Waffles']