$string = "<element><child>Hello World</child></element>";
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($string);
// The entire XML tree as a string:
// "<element><child>Hello World</child></element>"
$xml->asXML();
// Just the child node as a string:
// "<child>Hello World</child>"
$xml->child->asXML();
<?php
// string to SimpleXMLElement
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($string);
// make any changes.
....
// convert the SimpleXMLElement back to string.
$newString = $xml->asXML();
?>
Probably depending on the XML feed you may/may not need to use __toString(); I had to use the __toString() otherwise it is returning the string inside an SimpleXMLElement. Maybe I need to drill down the object further ...