So, I have this code that searches for a particular node in my XML file, unsets an existing node and inserts a brand new child node with the correct data. Is there a way of
Not sure I understand the issue. The asXML() method accepts an optional filename as param that will save the current structure as XML to a file. So once you have updated your XML with the hints, just save it back to file.
// Load XML with SimpleXml from string
$root = simplexml_load_string('foo ');
// Modify a node
$root->a = 'bar';
// Saving the whole modified XML to a new filename
$root->asXml('updated.xml');
// Save only the modified node
$root->a->asXml('only-a.xml');