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DiDOM

Simple and fast HTML and XML parser

From Imangazaliev·Updated May 28, 2026·View on GitHub·

- [README на русском](README-RU.md) - [DiDOM 1.x documentation](https://github.com/Imangazaliev/DiDOM/blob/98d411741d598b0b74bb38e215d99c1cdb0d532d/README.md). To upgrade from 1.x please checkout the [changelog](CHANGELOG.md). The project is written primarily in PHP, distributed under the MIT License license, first published in 2015. It has gained significant community traction with 2,199 stars and 200 forks on GitHub. Key topics include: dom, html, html-parser, parser, xml.

Latest release: 2.0.1v2.0.1
March 5, 2023View Changelog →

DiDOM

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DiDOM - simple and fast HTML parser.

Contents

Installation

To install DiDOM run the command:

composer require imangazaliev/didom

Quick start

php
use DiDom\Document; $document = new Document('http://www.news.com/', true); $posts = $document->find('.post'); foreach($posts as $post) { echo $post->text(), "\n"; }

Creating new document

DiDom allows to load HTML in several ways:

With constructor
php
// the first parameter is a string with HTML $document = new Document($html); // file path $document = new Document('page.html', true); // or URL $document = new Document('http://www.example.com/', true);

The second parameter specifies if you need to load file. Default is false.

Signature:

php
__construct($string = null, $isFile = false, $encoding = 'UTF-8', $type = Document::TYPE_HTML)

$string - an HTML or XML string or a file path.

$isFile - indicates that the first parameter is a path to a file.

$encoding - the document encoding.

$type - the document type (HTML - Document::TYPE_HTML, XML - Document::TYPE_XML).

With separate methods
php
$document = new Document(); $document->loadHtml($html); $document->loadHtmlFile('page.html'); $document->loadHtmlFile('http://www.example.com/');

There are two methods available for loading XML: loadXml and loadXmlFile.

These methods accept additional options:

php
$document->loadHtml($html, LIBXML_HTML_NOIMPLIED | LIBXML_HTML_NODEFDTD); $document->loadHtmlFile($url, LIBXML_HTML_NOIMPLIED | LIBXML_HTML_NODEFDTD); $document->loadXml($xml, LIBXML_PARSEHUGE); $document->loadXmlFile($url, LIBXML_PARSEHUGE);

Search for elements

DiDOM accepts CSS selector or XPath as an expression for search. You need to path expression as the first parameter, and specify its type in the second one (default type is Query::TYPE_CSS):

With method find():
php
use DiDom\Document; use DiDom\Query; ... // CSS selector $posts = $document->find('.post'); // XPath $posts = $document->find("//div[contains(@class, 'post')]", Query::TYPE_XPATH);

If the elements that match a given expression are found, then method returns an array of instances of DiDom\Element, otherwise - an empty array. You could also get an array of DOMElement objects. To get this, pass false as the third parameter.

With magic method __invoke():
php
$posts = $document('.post');

Warning: using this method is undesirable because it may be removed in the future.

With method xpath():
php
$posts = $document->xpath("//*[contains(concat(' ', normalize-space(@class), ' '), ' post ')]");

You can do search inside an element:

php
echo $document->find('nav')[0]->first('ul.menu')->xpath('//li')[0]->text();

Verify if element exists

To verify if element exist use has() method:

php
if ($document->has('.post')) { // code }

If you need to check if element exist and then get it:

php
if ($document->has('.post')) { $elements = $document->find('.post'); // code }

but it would be faster like this:

php
if (count($elements = $document->find('.post')) > 0) { // code }

because in the first case it makes two queries.

Search in element

Methods find(), first(), xpath(), has(), count() are available in Element too.

Example:

php
echo $document->find('nav')[0]->first('ul.menu')->xpath('//li')[0]->text();

Method findInDocument()

If you change, replace, or remove an element that was found in another element, the document will not be changed. This happens because method find() of Element class (a, respectively, the first () and xpath methods) creates a new document to search.

To search for elements in the source document, you must use the methods findInDocument() and firstInDocument():

php
// nothing will happen $document->first('head')->first('title')->remove(); // but this will do $document->first('head')->firstInDocument('title')->remove();

Warning: methods findInDocument() and firstInDocument() work only for elements, which belong to a document, and for elements created via new Element(...). If an element does not belong to a document, LogicException will be thrown;

Supported selectors

DiDom supports search by:

  • tag
  • class, ID, name and value of an attribute
  • pseudo-classes:
    • first-, last-, nth-child
    • empty and not-empty
    • contains
    • has
php
// all links $document->find('a'); // any element with id = "foo" and "bar" class $document->find('#foo.bar'); // any element with attribute "name" $document->find('[name]'); // the same as $document->find('*[name]'); // input field with the name "foo" $document->find('input[name=foo]'); $document->find('input[name=\'bar\']'); $document->find('input[name="baz"]'); // any element that has an attribute starting with "data-" and the value "foo" $document->find('*[^data-=foo]'); // all links starting with https $document->find('a[href^=https]'); // all images with the extension png $document->find('img[src$=png]'); // all links containing the string "example.com" $document->find('a[href*=example.com]'); // text of the links with "foo" class $document->find('a.foo::text'); // address and title of all the fields with "bar" class $document->find('a.bar::attr(href|title)');

Changing content

Change inner HTML

php
$element->setInnerHtml('<a href="#">Foo</a>');

Change inner XML

php
$element->setInnerXml(' Foo <span>Bar</span><!-- Baz --><![CDATA[ <root>Hello world!</root> ]]>');

Change value (as plain text)

php
$element->setValue('Foo'); // will be encoded like using htmlentities() $element->setValue('<a href="#">Foo</a>');

Output

Getting HTML

With method html():
php
$posts = $document->find('.post'); echo $posts[0]->html();
Casting to string:
php
$html = (string) $posts[0];
Formatting HTML output
php
$html = $document->format()->html();

An element does not have format() method, so if you need to output formatted HTML of the element, then first you have to convert it to a document:

php
$html = $element->toDocument()->format()->html();

Inner HTML

php
$innerHtml = $element->innerHtml();

Document does not have the method innerHtml(), therefore, if you need to get inner HTML of a document, convert it into an element first:

php
$innerHtml = $document->toElement()->innerHtml();

Getting XML

php
echo $document->xml(); echo $document->first('book')->xml();

Getting content

php
$posts = $document->find('.post'); echo $posts[0]->text();

Creating a new element

Creating an instance of the class

php
use DiDom\Element; $element = new Element('span', 'Hello'); // Outputs "<span>Hello</span>" echo $element->html();

First parameter is a name of an attribute, the second one is its value (optional), the third one is element attributes (optional).

An example of creating an element with attributes:

php
$attributes = ['name' => 'description', 'placeholder' => 'Enter description of item']; $element = new Element('textarea', 'Text', $attributes);

An element can be created from an instance of the class DOMElement:

php
use DiDom\Element; use DOMElement; $domElement = new DOMElement('span', 'Hello'); $element = new Element($domElement);

Using the method createElement

php
$document = new Document($html); $element = $document->createElement('span', 'Hello');

Getting the name of an element

php
$element->tagName();

Getting parent element

php
$document = new Document($html); $input = $document->find('input[name=email]')[0]; var_dump($input->parent());

Getting sibling elements

php
$document = new Document($html); $item = $document->find('ul.menu > li')[1]; var_dump($item->previousSibling()); var_dump($item->nextSibling());

Getting the child elements

php
$html = '<div>Foo<span>Bar</span><!--Baz--></div>'; $document = new Document($html); $div = $document->first('div'); // element node (DOMElement) // string(3) "Bar" var_dump($div->child(1)->text()); // text node (DOMText) // string(3) "Foo" var_dump($div->firstChild()->text()); // comment node (DOMComment) // string(3) "Baz" var_dump($div->lastChild()->text()); // array(3) { ... } var_dump($div->children());

Getting owner document

php
$document = new Document($html); $element = $document->find('input[name=email]')[0]; $document2 = $element->ownerDocument(); // bool(true) var_dump($document->is($document2));

Working with element attributes

Creating/updating an attribute

With method setAttribute:
php
$element->setAttribute('name', 'username');
With method attr:
php
$element->attr('name', 'username');
With magic method __set:
php
$element->name = 'username';

Getting value of an attribute

With method getAttribute:
php
$username = $element->getAttribute('value');
With method attr:
php
$username = $element->attr('value');
With magic method __get:
php
$username = $element->name;

Returns null if attribute is not found.

Verify if attribute exists

With method hasAttribute:
php
if ($element->hasAttribute('name')) { // code }
With magic method __isset:
php
if (isset($element->name)) { // code }

Removing attribute:

With method removeAttribute:
php
$element->removeAttribute('name');
With magic method __unset:
php
unset($element->name);

Comparing elements

php
$element = new Element('span', 'hello'); $element2 = new Element('span', 'hello'); // bool(true) var_dump($element->is($element)); // bool(false) var_dump($element->is($element2));

Appending child elements

php
$list = new Element('ul'); $item = new Element('li', 'Item 1'); $list->appendChild($item); $items = [ new Element('li', 'Item 2'), new Element('li', 'Item 3'), ]; $list->appendChild($items);

Adding a child element

php
$list = new Element('ul'); $item = new Element('li', 'Item 1'); $items = [ new Element('li', 'Item 2'), new Element('li', 'Item 3'), ]; $list->appendChild($item); $list->appendChild($items);

Replacing element

php
$element = new Element('span', 'hello'); $document->find('.post')[0]->replace($element);

Waning: you can replace only those elements that were found directly in the document:

php
// nothing will happen $document->first('head')->first('title')->replace($title); // but this will do $document->first('head title')->replace($title);

More about this in section Search for elements.

Removing element

php
$document->find('.post')[0]->remove();

Warning: you can remove only those elements that were found directly in the document:

php
// nothing will happen $document->first('head')->first('title')->remove(); // but this will do $document->first('head title')->remove();

More about this in section Search for elements.

Working with cache

Cache is an array of XPath expressions, that were converted from CSS.

Getting from cache

php
use DiDom\Query; ... $xpath = Query::compile('h2'); $compiled = Query::getCompiled(); // array('h2' => '//h2') var_dump($compiled);

Cache setting

php
Query::setCompiled(['h2' => '//h2']);

Miscellaneous

preserveWhiteSpace

By default, whitespace preserving is disabled.

You can enable the preserveWhiteSpace option before loading the document:

php
$document = new Document(); $document->preserveWhiteSpace(); $document->loadXml($xml);

count

The count () method counts children that match the selector:

php
// prints the number of links in the document echo $document->count('a');
php
// prints the number of items in the list echo $document->first('ul')->count('li');

matches

Returns true if the node matches the selector:

php
$element->matches('div#content'); // strict match // returns true if the element is a div with id equals content and nothing else // if the element has any other attributes the method returns false $element->matches('div#content', true);

isElementNode

Checks whether an element is an element (DOMElement):

php
$element->isElementNode();

isTextNode

Checks whether an element is a text node (DOMText):

php
$element->isTextNode();

isCommentNode

Checks whether the element is a comment (DOMComment):

php
$element->isCommentNode();

Comparison with other parsers

Comparison with other parsers

Contributors

Showing top 10 contributors by commit count.

View all contributors on GitHub →

This article is auto-generated from Imangazaliev/DiDOM via the GitHub API.Last fetched: 6/21/2026