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    DOMDocument::createCDATASection

    (PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

    DOMDocument::createCDATASection — Create new cdata node

    Description

    public DOMDocument::createCDATASection(string $data): DOMCdataSection|false

    This function creates a new instance of class DOMCDATASection. This node will not show up in the document unless it is inserted with (e.g.) DOMNode::appendChild().

    Parameters

    data

    The content of the cdata.

    Return Values

    The new DOMCDATASection or false if an error occurred.

    See Also

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    User Contributed Notes

    info at troptoek dot com
    17 years ago
    A common issue seems to be adding javascript to CDATA and the browser throwing a javascript error. To ensure the javascript works use the following code when adding CDATA:

    <?php
    /**
    * Append Caracter Data to a node and check for a javascript node
    *
    * @param DOMElement $appendToNode
    * @param string $text
    */
    function appendCdata($appendToNode, $text)
    {
    if (    strtolower($appendToNode->nodeName) == 'script') { // Javascript hack
    $cm = $appendToNode->ownerDocument->createTextNode("\n//");
    $ct = $appendToNode->ownerDocument->createCDATASection("\n" . $text . "\n//");
    $appendToNode->appendChild($cm);
    $appendToNode->appendChild($ct);
    } else {     // Normal CDATA node
    $ct = $appendToNode->ownerDocument->createCDATASection($text);
    $appendToNode->appendChild($ct);
    }
    }
    ?>
    The result should be:

    <script type="text/javascript">
    //<![CDATA[
    function someJsText() {
    document.write('Some js with <a href="#">HTML</a> content');
    }
    //]]></script>
    loathsome
    17 years ago
    Here's a function that will create a CDATA-section around a string coming from SimpleXML.

    <?php
    function sxml_cdata($path, $string){
    $dom = dom_import_simplexml($path);
    $cdata = $dom->ownerDocument->createCDATASection($string);
    $dom->appendChild($cdata);
    }
    ?>
    jesdisciple dot FOO at gmail dot BAR dot com
    14 years ago
    If you would like to refer to the documentation for the class of the returned object, see http://www.php.net/manual/en/class.domcharacterdata.php
    Marc info[at]braincast.nl
    14 years ago
    Here's some code that takes an associative array and prints it asXML() but creates CDATA sections for each string

    <?php
    class SimpleXMLExtended extends SimpleXMLElement{
    public function     addCData($string){
    $dom = dom_import_simplexml($this);
    $cdata = $dom->ownerDocument->createCDATASection($string);
    $dom->appendChild($cdata);
    }
    }
    function     assocArrayToXML($root_element_name,$ar){
    $xml = new SimpleXMLExtended("<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><{$root_element_name}></{$root_element_name}>");
    $f = create_function('$f,$c,$a','
    foreach($a as $k=>$v) {
    if(is_array($v)) {
    if (!is_numeric($k))$ch=$c->addChild($k);
    else $ch = $c->addChild(substr($c->getName(),0,-1));
    $f($f,$ch,$v);
    } else {
    if (is_numeric($v)){ $c->addChild($k, $v);
    }else{$n = $c->addChild($k); $n->addCData($v);}
    }
    }'    );
    $f($f,$xml,$ar);
    return     $xml->asXML();
    }

    /* sample */
    $result = array("title"=>"CDATA Sample");
    $result['items'] = array();
    $result['items'][] = array('title'=>'Some string', 'number' => 1);
    $result['items'][] = array('title'=>'Some string', 'number' => 2);
    $result['items'][] = array('title'=>'Some string', 'number' => 3);

    echo     assocArrayToXML('result',$result);
    ?>

    The is_numeric check could be changed by a more elaborate regular expression to check if the string is actually xml unsafe but this worked for me.
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