SAVE YOURSELF A MAJOR HEADACHE AND A LOT OF SEARCHING THROUGH DOCUMENTATION -
Instead of using $object->setAttribute('id', 'id_name_here')
USE THIS: $object->setAttribute('xml:id', 'id_name_here')
Then, to get the node value: $domDocumentObject->getElementById('id_name_here');
The xml:id attribute should AUTOMATICALLY be defined!!
Woohoo! That was easy......