XML DOM replaceChild

Question

I have a website here that writes info to and XML file, here is my code:

<?php
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->load("xml/latestContent.xml");
$rootElement = $doc->documentElement;

// Create latestpic element as a child of the root element
$latestPicElement = $rootElement->appendChild($doc->createElement("latestpic"));
$latestPicElement->appendChild($doc->createElement("item", "Latest Pic"));
$latestPicElement->appendChild($doc->createElement("content", $latestPic));

// Create latestvideo element as a child of the root element
$latestVidElement = $rootElement->appendChild($doc->createElement("latestvideo"));
$latestVidElement->appendChild($doc->createElement("item", "Latest Video"));
$latestVidElement->appendChild($doc->createElement("content", $videoData));

// Create latestfact element as a child of the root element
$latestFactElement = $rootElement->appendChild($doc->createElement("latestfact"));
$latestFactElement->appendChild($doc->createElement("item", "Latest Fact"));
$latestFactElement->appendChild($doc->createElement("content", $factData));

// Save back to XML file
$doc->save("xml/latestContent.xml");
?>

The problem here is every time I load the webpage it reloads this function which just adds the same data back onto the XML file, I would like it to replace the original data if I can? How do I go about doing this? I have researched the replaceChild method but can not get the syntax quite right. Can anyone please show me?

Or is there a way I can add in there to load a blank xml every time? So it just adds the content to a new XML file?

Thanks so much in advance!

Answer 1

You need a pointer to the node you're trying to replace if you want to use replaceChild() . On the other hand, if the idea is to replace all of the data, why read the existing file?

//$doc->load("xml/latestContent.xml"); not needed
$rootElement = $dom->appendChild($doc->createElement("Root"));

This new document will overwrite the previous one. You can get more info here .