Index: src/OFXMLElement.h
==================================================================
--- src/OFXMLElement.h
+++ src/OFXMLElement.h
@@ -215,10 +215,15 @@
 /**
  * \return An array with all children of the element
  */
 - (OFArray*)children;
 
+/**
+ * \return A string with the string value of all children concatenated
+ */
+- (OFString*)stringValue;
+
 /**
  * \return A new autoreleased OFString representing the OFXMLElement as an
  * XML string
  */
 - (OFString*)XMLString;

Index: src/OFXMLElement.m
==================================================================
--- src/OFXMLElement.m
+++ src/OFXMLElement.m
@@ -262,10 +262,46 @@
 
 - (OFArray*)children
 {
 	return [[children copy] autorelease];
 }
+
+- (OFString*)stringValue
+{
+	OFAutoreleasePool *pool;
+	OFMutableString *ret;
+	OFXMLElement **children_c;
+	size_t i, count = [children count];
+
+	if (count == 0)
+		return @"";
+
+	ret = [OFMutableString string];
+	children_c = [children cArray];
+	pool = [[OFAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
+
+	for (i = 0; i < count; i++) {
+		if (children_c[i]->characters != nil)
+			[ret appendString: children_c[i]->characters];
+		else if (children_c[i]->cdata != nil)
+			[ret appendString: children_c[i]->cdata];
+		else if (children_c[i]->comment == nil) {
+			[ret appendString: [children_c[i] stringValue]];
+			[pool releaseObjects];
+		}
+	}
+
+	[pool release];
+
+	/*
+	 * Class swizzle the string to be immutable. We declared the return type
+	 * to be OFString*, so it can't be modified anyway. But not swizzling it
+	 * would create a real copy each time -[copy] is called.
+	 */
+	ret->isa = [OFString class];
+	return ret;
+}
 
 - (OFString*)_XMLStringWithParent: (OFXMLElement*)parent
 {
 	OFAutoreleasePool *pool, *pool2;
 	char *str_c;

Index: tests/OFXMLElementTests.m
==================================================================
--- tests/OFXMLElementTests.m
+++ tests/OFXMLElementTests.m
@@ -114,10 +114,15 @@
 	    @"<foo foo='b&amp;ar'><bar/></foo>"] &&
 	    R([elem[2] addChild: [OFXMLElement elementWithName: @"bar"
 		      namespace: @"urn:objfw:test"]]) &&
 	    [[elem[2] XMLString] isEqual:
 	    @"<objfw-test:foo test='test'><objfw-test:bar/></objfw-test:foo>"])
+
+	TEST(@"+[elementWithXMLString:] and -[stringValue]",
+	    [[[OFXMLElement elementWithXMLString:
+	    @"<x>foo<![CDATA[bar]]><y>baz</y>qux</x>"] stringValue] isEqual:
+	    @"foobarbazqux"])
 
 	TEST(@"-[elementsForName:namespace:]",
 	    (a = [elem[2] elementsForName: @"bar"
 				namespace: @"urn:objfw:test"]) &&
 	    [a count] == 1 && [[[a firstObject] XMLString] isEqual:

Index: tests/TestsAppDelegate.m
==================================================================
--- tests/TestsAppDelegate.m
+++ tests/TestsAppDelegate.m
@@ -136,12 +136,12 @@
 #endif
 	[self URLTests];
 #ifdef OF_THREADS
 	[self HTTPRequestTests];
 #endif
-	[self XMLElementTests];
 	[self XMLParserTests];
+	[self XMLElementTests];
 	[self XMLElementBuilderTests];
 #ifdef OF_PLUGINS
 	[self pluginTests];
 #endif
 #ifdef OF_HAVE_PROPERTIES