Introduction to XML in Flash
       by senocular

Editing Text Nodes and Element Names
If you'll remember, the nodeValue (text nodes) and nodeName (elements) properties for XML nodes were not read-only as many of the other properties like firstChild and nextSibling were. This means that, like attribute values, they too can be edited directly. Example:

var my_xml = new XML("<loss>We cannot perform well.</loss>");

trace(my_xml); // traces "<loss>We cannot perform well.</loss>"

 

my_xml.firstChild.nodeName = "victory";

my_xml.firstChild.firstChild.nodeValue = "We dominate!";

trace(my_xml); // traces "<victory>We dominate!</victory>"

And much like createTextNode, setting nodeValue will transform undesirables into character entity references.