XML DOM: encoding attribute problems and namespaces

hi ;) Recently I've been using the DOM module of php and I have encountered a few problems. I am working on a quite advanced XML application and I am forced to use the PHP technology. I need to dynamically create XML documents. There's no problem with that when i simply use this statement: $doc = xmldoc('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?><categories/>'); but when i use this: $doc = xmldoc('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-2"?><categories/>'); php doesn't parse my document! it doesn't even give me an error message ;( does anyone have an idea what to do with it? also is there a way to declare a document without a root element, but with the "encoding" attribute set? it's possible to do it like this: $doc = new_xmldoc('1.0'); but i can't set the encoding attribute then. if i try something like this: $doc = xmldoc('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>'); i get this after $doc->dumpmem(): <?xml version='<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>'?> i'm also wondering about the use of namespaces in PHP DOM. is it possible? where can i get some infos about it? sorry if this post repeats some threads, but i'm new to this group ;) Chris Jarecki ps: sorry for possible language mistakes ;)