Fluent method to add sibling node to parent node

[kinekt4]

The switchContext parameter allows a node to add a sibling node to the current node or a child node to the current node.

Is it possible to use the fluent method to add a sibling node to the parent node?

For example, I would like to produce the following

<food>
  <menu>
      <pasta>
        <name>Spaghetti</name>
      </pasta>
      <pasta>
        <name>Fusilli</name>
      </pasta>
    </menu>
</food>

Case where switchContext is false for Spaghetti node:

$xml = new FluidXml('food');
$xml->addChild('menu', true)
    ->addChild('pasta', true)
        ->addChild('name', 'Spaghetti', false)
    ->addChild('pasta', true)
        ->addChild('name', 'Fettuccine');

would produce the following:

<food>        
  <menu>            
    <pasta>                
      <name>Spaghetti</name>                
      <pasta>                    
        <name>Fettuccine</name>                
      </pasta>            
    </pasta>        
  </menu>    
</food> 

Case where switchContext is true for Spaghetti node:

$xml = new FluidXml('food');
$xml->addChild('menu', true)
    ->addChild('pasta', true)
        ->addChild('name', 'Spaghetti', true)
    ->addChild('pasta', true)
        ->addChild('name', 'Fettuccine');

would produce the following:

<food>    
  <menu>        
    <pasta>            
      <name>Spaghetti                 
        <pasta>                    
          <name>Fettuccine</name>                
        </pasta>            
      </name>        
    </pasta>    
  </menu>
</food>

As you can see, neither produces the correct XML.

Question: Is there a way to do this using add/Child() alone? Or do I need to chain xpath queries prior to adding the nodes?

[daniele-orlando]

Hi dear @denormalizer.

What you want to do can be easily done using relative XPath queries; I've implemented them especially for this reason. addChild() alone can't help you in this.

$xml = new FluidXml('food');
$xml->addChild('menu', true)
    ->addChild('pasta', true)
        ->addChild('name', 'Spaghetti')
   ->query('..')
   ->addChild('pasta', true)
       ->addChild('name', 'Fettuccine');

which produces exactly what you want

<food>
  <menu>
      <pasta>
        <name>Spaghetti</name>
      </pasta>
      <pasta>
         <name>Fusilli</name>
       </pasta>
    </menu>
</food>

If I can give you a suggestion, when you have a predictable data structure which you want to convert to XML, prefer the array input format.

$xml = new FluidXml('food');

$data = [ 'menu' => [
    [ 'pasta' => [ 'name' => 'spaghetti'  ] ],
    [ 'pasta' => [ 'name' => 'fettuccine' ] ],
]];
    
$xml->addChild($data);

which is more readable, easier to generalise and to refactor.

[kinekt4]

Hi Daniele,

Thanks for your suggestion. I've been umming and ahhing over which method to go with.

I originally went with the array method then I switched over to the fluid method.

I have a predictable (but configurable) data structure. I also have dynamic data. That means I want to be able to easily replace spaghetti with bolognese

How would you do it with the array method?

[daniele-orlando]

I would generate a dynamic array.