replacing node text using lxml.objectify while preserving attributes

Question

Using `lxml.objectify` like so: ``` from lxml import objectify o = objectify.fromstring("oldtext") o.b = 'newtext' ``` results in `newtext`, losing the node attribute. It seems to be directly replacing the element with a newly created one, rather than simply replacing the text of the element. If I try to use `o.b.text = 'newtext'`, it tells me that `attribute 'text' of 'StringElement' objects is not writable`. Is there a way to do this within objectify without having to split it out into a different element and involving etree? I simply want to replace the inner text while leaving the rest of the node alone. I feel like I'm missing something simple here.

Accepted Answer

```
>>> type(o.b)
<type 'lxml.objectify.StringElement'>
```

You are replacing an element with a plain string. You need to replace it with a new string element.

```
>>> o.b = objectify.E.b('newtext', atr='someatr')
```

For some reason you can't just do:

```
>>> o.b.text = 'newtext'
```

However, this seems to work:

```
>>> o.b._setText('newtext')
```

replacing node text using lxml.objectify while preserving attributes

Solution

Problem