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The XMLBuilder class provides the foundation for building XML documents. It’s extended by ArrayExporter and ViewExporter.

​
Constructor

new XMLBuilder(string $encoding = 'UTF-8', string $version = '1.0')
​
encoding
string
default:"UTF-8"
The encoding to use for the XML document.
​
version
string
default:"1.0"
The XML version to use.
$builder = new XMLBuilder('UTF-8', '1.0');
You typically don’t use XMLBuilder directly. Use XML::export() or XML::exportView() instead.

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Configuration Methods

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version()

Set the XML version. 
public function version(string $version = "1.0"): XMLBuilder
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version
string
default:"1.0"
The XML version string.
​
return
XMLBuilder
Returns the builder instance for chaining.
$builder->version('1.1');

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encoding()

Set the XML encoding. 
public function encoding(string $encoding = "UTF-8"): XMLBuilder
​
encoding
string
default:"UTF-8"
The character encoding (e.g., UTF-8, ISO-8859-1).
​
return
XMLBuilder
Returns the builder instance for chaining.
$builder->encoding('ISO-8859-1');

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rootTag()

Set the name of the root XML tag. 
public function rootTag(string $name = "root"): XMLBuilder
​
name
string
default:"root"
The name for the root tag.
​
return
XMLBuilder
Returns the builder instance for chaining.
$builder->rootTag('users');
// Produces: <users>...</users>

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setRootTag()

Set or disable the root tag. 
public function setRootTag(string|bool $tag): static
​
tag
string|bool
required
The root tag name, or false to disable the root tag.
​
return
static
Returns the builder instance for chaining.
$builder->setRootTag('data');
$builder->setRootTag(false); // Disable root tag

​
disableRootTag()

Disable the root tag wrapper. 
public function disableRootTag(): static
​
return
static
Returns the builder instance for chaining.
$builder->disableRootTag();
// No root tag will be added
Disabling the root tag may produce invalid XML if you have multiple top-level elements.

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itemName()

Set the default name for items without explicit keys. 
public function itemName(string $name = "item"): XMLBuilder
​
name
string
default:"item"
The default name for array items without keys.
​
return
XMLBuilder
Returns the builder instance for chaining.
$builder->itemName('record');

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Data Methods

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data()

Set the data to be exported. 
public function data(array $data): XMLBuilder
​
data
array
required
The array data to convert to XML.
​
return
XMLBuilder
Returns the builder instance for chaining.
$builder->data([
    'user' => [
        'name' => 'John',
        'email' => '[email protected]'
    ]
]);

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forceItemName()

Force usage of the item name instead of auto-generating names based on the root tag. 
public function forceItemName(): XMLBuilder
​
return
XMLBuilder
Returns the builder instance for chaining.
$builder->forceItemName()->itemName('entry');

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Protected Methods

These methods are used internally by exporters but can be useful to understand the XML generation process.

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getProlog()

Generate the XML prolog (declaration). 
protected function getProlog(): string
​
return
string
Returns the XML prolog string.
// Produces: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

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openRootTag()

Generate the opening root tag. 
protected function openRootTag(): string
​
return
string
Returns the opening tag or empty string if root tag is disabled.
// Produces: <root>

​
closeRootTag()

Generate the closing root tag. 
protected function closeRootTag(): string
​
return
string
Returns the closing tag or empty string if root tag is disabled.
// Produces: </root>

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getRootTag()

Get the current root tag name. 
protected function getRootTag(): string
​
return
string
Returns the root tag name (defaults to ‘root’).

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getFieldName()

Generate the name for top-level tags. 
protected function getFieldName(string|int $field): string
​
field
string|int
required
The field name or numeric index.
​
return
string
Returns the generated field name.

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generateFieldName()

Generate field names for numeric keys. 
protected function generateFieldName(string $field): string
​
field
string
required
The parent field name.
​
return
string
Returns the singular form of the field name or the configured item name.

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Magic Methods

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__call()

Handle dynamic setters for configuration properties. 
public function __call(string $name, array $arguments): XMLBuilder
​
name
string
required
The method name (must be one of: version, rootTag, encoding, itemName).
​
arguments
array
required
The method arguments (exactly one argument required).
​
return
XMLBuilder
Returns the builder instance for chaining.
$builder->version('1.0')
        ->encoding('UTF-8')
        ->rootTag('data')
        ->itemName('record');

​
Complete Example

use Flowgistics\XML\XMLBuilder;

$builder = new XMLBuilder();

$xml = $builder
    ->version('1.0')
    ->encoding('UTF-8')
    ->rootTag('users')
    ->itemName('user')
    ->data([
        ['name' => 'John', 'email' => '[email protected]'],
        ['name' => 'Jane', 'email' => '[email protected]']
    ]);
In practice, use XML::export() which returns an ArrayExporter that extends XMLBuilder with additional export functionality.

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Inheritance

The following classes extend XMLBuilder:
  • ArrayExporter - Exports arrays to XML
  • ViewExporter - Exports Blade views to XML
See their respective documentation pages for export-specific methods.

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