Skip to main content

modify_xml_nodes_nokogiri

✏️ Modifying XML Nodes with Nokogiri​

Updating an existing XML document—adding, editing, or removing nodes—is easy with Nokogiri’s node manipulation API. You can clone nodes, change attributes, or insert elements at specific locations.

require 'nokogiri'

xml = <<-XML
<books>
  <book id="1"><title>Old Title</title></book>
</books>
XML

doc = Nokogiri::XML(xml)

# Update title text
doc.at_xpath('//book[@id="1"]/title').content = 'New Title'

# Add a new element
new_book = Nokogiri::XML::Node.new('book', doc)
new_book['id'] = '2'
new_title = Nokogiri::XML::Node.new('title', doc)
new_title.content = 'Second Book'
new_book.add_child(new_title)
doc.root.add_child(new_book)

# Remove the old book
doc.xpath('//book[@id="1"]').remove

puts doc.to_xml(indent: 2)