PHP 8.0: XMLParser objects replace xml resources
As part of PHP's resource to object migration, XML Parser extensions primary resource types are migrated to XMLParser class objects in PHP 8.0.
Prior to PHP 8.0, xml_parser_create and xml_parser_create_ns functions returned a resource of type xml. In PHP 8.0, all XML Parser functions return and accept XMLParser objects.
XMLParser class synopsis
final XMLParser {}xml_parser_create and xml_parser_create_ns functions must be used to instantiate XMLParser objects. Directly instantiating with new XMLParser construct is not allowed, and results in an error:
new XMLParser();PHP Error: Cannot directly construct XmlParser, use xml_parser_create() or xml_parser_create_ns() instead in ... on line ...is_resource calls
The return values of xml_parser_create and xml_parser_create_ns functions are standard PHP class objects, and are no longer resource objects.
is_resource function no longer returns true for the return values of said functions.
Destroying XMLParser objects
It is no longer necessary to call xml_parser_free that was required in previous PHP versions to avoid memory leaks.
xml_parser_free function is not deprecated, and calling it (for backwards-compatibility) will not cause any issues.
Note that it may be necessary to explicitly destroy XML parser objects (unset($parser)) in case the objects might not fall out of scope for the garbage collector to clean them. PHP 8's Weak Maps might help to associate additional data for XML Parser objects without objecting the garbage collector.
Backwards Compatibility Impact
Unless there are is_resource calls, there should be no backwards-compatibility issues. In PHP 8.0, all XML Parser functions accept XMLParser objects instead of resource objects.