Title: Feature Request: libxml2 / DOMDocument
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# Feature Request: libxml2 / DOMDocument

 *  Resolved [AliceWonderFull](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alicewonderfull/)
 * (@alicewonderfull)
 * [12 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/feature-request-libxml2-domdocument/)
 * Dear WordPress,
 * As the premier blogging CMS, I believe that your development should focus on 
   changing the model of how content is produced with WordPress to promote a safer
   web.
 * I would like a development branch of WordPress that uses the Document Object 
   Model facilities of libxml2 for the creation of content.
 * There would be some immediate benefits to the platform outside of the potential
   security benefits. Plugins that need to add content to the head node would no
   longer have to have scripts that “look ahead” to see if they are used early on
   in the content generation, your wp_enqueue_scripts action could add scripts and
   style sheets to the head at any point in the generation of the content.
 * Plugins that do things like expand shortened URLs could run after the document
   is fully generated but before being sent. Plugins that add a target attribute
   to any hyperlinks not in a whitelisted domain would be cake, no regex necessary.
 * But in addition to the many benefits plugin developers would have, there are 
   also some security policies you could easily enforce with such a model. For example,
   after the DOM has been constructed, you could easily remove any script nodes 
   that are not in the document head and remove any event handler attributes (like
   onclick etc.). This simple step would make it very difficult for anyone to inject
   malicious content into a page.
 * You could go even one step further and send a Content Security Policy header 
   so that browsers will know not to execute any scripts that are not in the document
   head.
 * I understand there will be some plugin developer resistance to this kind of radical
   change to the platform, but as a developer myself who fell in love with the raw
   power of the Document Object Model when I was first forced to use it, I believe
   many developers will see the light and readily embrace it.
 * By doing these changes in a separate development branch, it would give developers
   a chance to play with it and decide if they like it before WordPress as a whole
   moved to this model, and it would give time to port existing plugins to use the
   Document Object Model.
 * Using DOMDocument would add a dependency on libxml2 to the php engine required
   to run a WordPress site. Every linux distribution I am aware of that packages
   php already ships with libxml2 and has the necessary php module in their package
   repository.
 * Thank you for your time,
 * Alice Wonder

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [12 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/feature-request-libxml2-domdocument/#post-4984980)
 * One small problem 🙂 not everyone is on Linux. It’s a nifty idea, and actually
   WP uses DOMDocument in a few places. But, it can be disabled, either by a distro
   messing with PHP (see Redhat) or with –disable-dom. When we use DOMDocument in
   core, we always check class_exists(). Plugins can already use it, but it won’t
   be a requirement for a while since it’s not universal.
 *  Thread Starter [AliceWonderFull](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alicewonderfull/)
 * (@alicewonderfull)
 * [11 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/feature-request-libxml2-domdocument/#post-4985000)
 * libxml2 is widely available on any *nix and I’m almost certain it is available
   on Windows server as well.
 * MySQL is not required for php yet WordPress requires the MySQL bindings, so clearly
   the product is not above requiring commonly available components that are not
   necessarily always in a php install.
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [11 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/feature-request-libxml2-domdocument/#post-4985001)
 * We try real hard not to make more. In fact, MySQL May be the only one. WP will
   run without a lot of ’em.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Feature Request: libxml2 / DOMDocument’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [CSP](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/csp/)
 * [dom](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/dom/)
 * [xml](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/xml/)

 * In: [Requests and Feedback](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/requests-and-feedback/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/feature-request-libxml2-domdocument/#post-4985001)
 * Status: resolved

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