Parsing

Atelier SVG provides two approaches for loading SVG content: the DomLoader (high-level) and the DomParser (low-level with parse profiles).

Loading with the Svg Facade

The simplest way to load SVGs:

use Atelier\Svg\Svg;

// From a file
$svg = Svg::load('path/to/icon.svg');

// From a string
$svg = Svg::fromString('<svg width="100" height="100"><circle cx="50" cy="50" r="40"/></svg>');

Both methods use DomLoader internally and return an Svg instance.

DomLoader

DomLoader implements LoaderInterface and converts SVG content into a Document using PHP's DOM extension.

use Atelier\Svg\Loader\DomLoader;

$loader = new DomLoader();

// Load from a string
$document = $loader->loadFromString($svgContent);

// Load from a file (throws RuntimeException if unreadable)
$document = $loader->loadFromFile('path/to/image.svg');

You can pass a custom loader to the facade:

$svg = Svg::load('icon.svg', $customLoader);

DomParser

DomParser is the lower-level parser that converts raw SVG XML into the library's element tree. It supports parse profiles and security protections.

use Atelier\Svg\Parser\DomParser;
use Atelier\Svg\Parser\ParseProfile;

$parser = new DomParser(ParseProfile::STRICT);
$document = $parser->parse($svgString);

// Or parse from a file directly
$document = $parser->parseFile('path/to/icon.svg');

Security

The parser includes built-in protections:

• XXE prevention: External entity loading is disabled (LIBXML_NONET).
• Entity expansion attacks: The parser does not use LIBXML_NOENT, preventing "Billion Laughs" attacks.
• Input size limit: Defaults to 10 MB. Configurable via the constructor:

$parser = new DomParser(
    profile: ParseProfile::LENIENT,
    maxInputSize: 5 * 1024 * 1024 // 5 MB
);

Parse Profiles

The ParseProfile enum controls how the parser handles errors and edge cases.

use Atelier\Svg\Parser\DomParser;
use Atelier\Svg\Parser\ParseProfile;

// Strict: will throw ParseException on any XML error
$parser = new DomParser(ParseProfile::STRICT);

// Lenient: tolerates minor issues (default)
$parser = new DomParser(ParseProfile::LENIENT);

// Change profile after construction
$parser->setProfile(ParseProfile::STRICT);

Supported Elements

The parser recognizes all standard SVG elements: shapes (rect, circle, ellipse, line, polyline, polygon, path), structural elements (g, defs, symbol, use), text (text, tspan, textPath), gradients, filters, clipping/masking, and animation elements. Unknown elements are silently skipped in lenient mode.

Error Handling

Both loader and parser throw specific exceptions:

• Atelier\Svg\Exception\RuntimeException - file not found, unreadable, or exceeds the configured size limit (loader).
• Atelier\Svg\Exception\ParseException - invalid XML, missing root <svg> element, or any XML error when using ParseProfile::STRICT (parser).

Both implement Atelier\Svg\Exception\SvgExceptionInterface and extend \RuntimeException.

Via the facade

<?php
use Atelier\Svg\Svg;
use Atelier\Svg\Exception\ParseException;
use Atelier\Svg\Exception\RuntimeException;

try {
    $svg = Svg::load('icon.svg');
} catch (RuntimeException $e) {
    // File missing, unreadable, or too large
    echo 'Load error: ' . $e->getMessage();
} catch (ParseException $e) {
    // Malformed XML or not an SVG document
    echo 'Parse error: ' . $e->getMessage();
}

Via DomParser directly

ParseProfile::STRICT throws on the first XML warning; ParseProfile::LENIENT records warnings and continues.

<?php
use Atelier\Svg\Parser\DomParser;
use Atelier\Svg\Parser\ParseProfile;
use Atelier\Svg\Exception\ParseException;

$parser = new DomParser(ParseProfile::STRICT);

try {
    $document = $parser->parse($svgString);
} catch (ParseException $e) {
    echo 'Parse error: ' . $e->getMessage();
}

File not found vs. parse failure

RuntimeException is thrown before parsing begins - the file could not be read. ParseException is thrown after the file is read but the content is not valid SVG XML. Catching both lets you distinguish input problems from infrastructure problems.

See also

• Document Overview: What is a Document
• Creating SVGs: Building SVGs from scratch
• Validation: Validating parsed documents