Last updated: Fri, 28 Nov 2008

DOMNode::insertBefore

(No version information available, might be only in CVS)

DOMNode::insertBefore — Adds a new child before a reference node

Description

DOMNode DOMNode::insertBefore ( DOMNode $newnode [, DOMNode $refnode ] )

This function inserts a new node right before the reference node. If you plan to do further modifications on the appended child you must use the returned node.

Parameters

newnode: The new node.
refnode: The reference node. If not supplied, newnode is appended to the children.

Return Values

The inserted node.

Errors/Exceptions

DOM_NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly or if the previous parent of the node being inserted is readonly.
DOM_HIERARCHY_REQUEST_ERR: Raised if this node is of a type that does not allow children of the type of the newnode node, or if the node to append is one of this node's ancestors or this node itself.
DOM_WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: Raised if newnode was created from a different document than the one that created this node.
DOM_NOT_FOUND: Raised if refnode is not a child of this node.

DOMNode::isDefaultNamespace

DOMNode::hasChildNodes

Last updated: Fri, 28 Nov 2008

add a note User Contributed Notes
DOMNode::insertBefore

odonnell dot NOSPAM at ideaengineinc dot com
06-May-2008 10:57


Here's a usage example.



If you try this, you'll get an error message.



$refNode->insertBefore($newNode, $refNode);



Try this instead...



$refNode->parentNode->insertBefore($newNode, $refNode);

DrTebi at Yahoo
03-Oct-2007 02:54


Sorry, my previous posting worked only for the top node. Here the corrected version, which will work for any node:



XML

----

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<contacts>

  <person>Adam</person>

  <person>Eva</person>

  <person>Thomas</person>

</contacts>



PHP

---

<?php

// load XML, create XPath object

$xml = new DomDocument();

$xml->preserveWhitespace = false;

$xml->load('contacts.xml');

$xpath = new DOMXPath($xml);



// get node eva, which we will append to

$eva = $xpath->query('/contacts/person[.="Eva"]')->item(0);



// create node john

$john = $xml->createElement('person', 'John');



// insert john after eva

//   "in eva's parent node (=contacts) insert

//   john before eva's next node"

// this also works if eva would be the last node

$eva->parentNode->insertBefore($john, $eva->nextSibling);



// show result

header('Content-Type: text/plain');

print $xml->saveXML();

?>



Result

------

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<contacts>

  <person>Adam</person>

  <person>Eva</person><person>John</person>

  <person>Thomas</person>

</contacts>

justin at redwiredesign dot com
07-Feb-2007 05:20


The previous example is incorrect, and causes a DOM_NOT_FOUND error, as the child nodes are not direct descendants of the root node.



Therefore, the line:



$parent_path = "/root";



needs to change to:



$parent_path = "/root/parent";



or 



$parent_path = "//parent";



for this example to work

25-Aug-2005 08:34


moving an existing node within the DomDocument:

<root>

  <parent>

    <child><name>Bob</name></child>

    <child><name>Sue</name></child>

  </parent>

</root>



$dom = new DomDocument(); 

$dom->load("sample.xml"); 



$parent_path = "/root";

$query = "//child[position() = 2]";

$query2 = "//child[position() = 1]";



$xpath = new DomXPath($dom); 



$parent = $xpath->query($parent_path); 



$under = $xpath->query($query);



$above = $xpath->query($query2);



$parent->item(0)->insertBefore($under->item(0), $above->item(0));



$dom->save("sample.xml");



Should produce:



<root>

  <parent>

    <child><name>Sue</name></child>

    <child><name>Bob</name></child>

  </parent>

</root>

jg at handcode dot de
18-Aug-2005 09:18


example to insert <newnode/> between <chid1/> and <child2/>



<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>     

<root> 

  <parent> 

    <child nr="1"/> 

    <child nr="2"/> 

  </parent> 

</root> 



<?php 

 

$xml_src = 'test.xml'; 

 

// XPath-Querys 

$parent_path = "//parent"; 

$next_path = "//parent/child[@nr='2']"; 

 

// Create a new DOM document 

$dom = new DomDocument(); 

$dom->load($xml_src); 

 

// Find the parent node 

$xpath = new DomXPath($dom); 

 

// Find parent node 

$parent = $xpath->query($parent_path); 

 

// new node will be inserted before this node 

$next = $xpath->query($next_path); 

 

// Create the new element 

$element = $dom->createElement('newnode'); 

 

// Insert the new element 

$parent->item(0)->insertBefore($element, $next->item(0)); 

 

echo $dom->saveXML(); 

 

?>

Jerry Ellis
03-Jun-2005 09:45


1st argument) a node to insert 

2nd argument) a reference node - this is the node that the new node will be inserted before



The trick to using this method is that the OBJECT on which you actually CALL the insertBefore() method is actually the PARENT node of the reference node!  



INCORRECT:

$DOMNode_refNode->insertBefore($DOMNode_newNode, $DOMNode_refNode); 



CORRECT:

$DOMNode_refNode->parentNode->insertBefore($DOMNode_newNode, $DOMNode_refNode);

add a note

DOMNode::isDefaultNamespace

DOMNode::hasChildNodes

Last updated: Fri, 28 Nov 2008