Essential XML utilities in PHP.

php-xml-utilities.php

<?php

/**
 * SimpleXMLExtended Class
 *
 * Extends the default PHP SimpleXMLElement class by 
 * allowing the addition of cdata
 *
 * @param string $cdata_text
 */
class SimpleXMLExtended extends SimpleXMLElement{   
  public function addCData($cdata_text){   
    $node= dom_import_simplexml($this);   
    $no = $node->ownerDocument;   
    $node->appendChild($no->createCDATASection($cdata_text));   
  } 
} 

/**
 * Get XML
 *
 * Returns array of XML file contents
 *
 * @param string $file
 * @return array
 */
function getXML($file) {
  $xml = file_get_contents($file);
  $data = simplexml_load_string($xml, 'SimpleXMLExtended', LIBXML_NOCDATA);
  return $data;
}


/**
 * XML Save
 *
 * @param object $xml
 * @param string $file Filename that it will be saved as
 * @return bool
 */
function XMLsave($xml, $file) {
  $success = $xml->asXML($file) === TRUE;
  return $success && chmod($file, 0755);
}