Create HTML Elements Using PHP: html_element Class

I love creating HTML elements using the MooTools JavaScript library. It's easy, fast, and the JavaScript code to create the element is beautiful. That got me thinking -- why don't I do this using PHP? When you build as many dynamic CMS-like websites as me, you end up having to manipulate single HTML element attributes with a bunch of if/else logic and the code can start looking ugly.
I took about a half hour to throw together the following PHP class. It's small, easy to use, and produces beautiful code--just like Moo!

The PHP

/* creates an html element, like in js */
class html_element
{
 /* vars */
 var $type;
 var $attributes;
 var $self_closers;
 
 /* constructor */
 function html_element($type,$self_closers = array('input','img','hr','br','meta','link'))
 {
  $this->type = strtolower($type);
  $this->self_closers = $self_closers;
 }
 
 /* get */
 function get($attribute)
 {
  return $this->attributes[$attribute];
 }
 
 /* set -- array or key,value */
 function set($attribute,$value = '')
 {
  if(!is_array($attribute))
  {
   $this->attributes[$attribute] = $value;
  }
  else
  {
   $this->attributes = array_merge($this->attributes,$attribute);
  }
 }
 
 /* remove an attribute */
 function remove($att)
 {
  if(isset($this->attributes[$att]))
  {
   unset($this->attributes[$att]);
  }
 }
 
 /* clear */
 function clear()
 {
  $this->attributes = array();
 }
 
 /* inject */
 function inject($object)
 {
  if(@get_class($object) == __class__)
  {
   $this->attributes['text'].= $object->build();
  }
 }
 
 /* build */
 function build()
 {
  //start
  $build = '<'.$this->type;
  
  //add attributes
  if(count($this->attributes))
  {
   foreach($this->attributes as $key=>$value)
   {
    if($key != 'text') { $build.= ' '.$key.'="'.$value.'"'; }
   }
  }
  
  //closing
  if(!in_array($this->type,$this->self_closers))
  {
   $build.= '>'.$this->attributes['text'].'</'.$this->type.'>';
  }
  else
  {
   $build.= ' />';
  }
  
  //return it
  return $build;
 }
 
 /* spit it out */
 function output()
 {
  echo $this->build();
 }
}

The class is pretty simple. When you instantiate the class, you feed it the element type. Once the element is created, you use get() to retrieve values and set() (key and value OR array key=>value) to set values. You can get rid of a specified attribute using remove() or all attribute key=>values using clear(). You can inject html_elements into other html_elements by using inject(). You can get the raw HTML of the element using build() or you can use the output() function to echo out the HTML. Important: use the "text" attribute to add text/HTML inside an element.

Example Uses

/* test case - simple link */
$my_anchor = new html_element('a');
$my_anchor->set('href','http://davidwalsh.name');
$my_anchor->set('title','David Walsh Blog');
$my_anchor->set('text','Click here!');
$my_anchor->output();
//<a href="http://davidwalsh.name" title="David Walsh Blog">Click here!</a>

/* test case - br tag */
echo '<pre>';
$my_anchor = new html_element('br');
$my_anchor->output();
//<br />

/* test case - sending an array to set */
echo '<pre>';
$my_anchor = new html_element('a');
$my_anchor->set('href','http://davidwalsh.name');
$my_anchor->set(array('href'=>'http://cnn.com','text'=>'CNN'));
$my_anchor->output();
//<a href="http://cnn.com">CNN</a>

/* test case - injecting another element */
echo '<pre>';
$my_image = new html_element('img');
$my_image->set('src','cnn-logo.jpg');
$my_image->set('border','0');
$my_anchor = new html_element('a');
$my_anchor->set(array('href'=>'http://cnn.com','title'=>'CNN'));
$my_anchor->inject($my_image);
$my_anchor->output();
//<a href="http://cnn.com" title="CNN"><img src="cnn-logo.jpg" border="0" /></a>

Have any ideas for this class? Share them!