docs: def _set_element_property(parent_to_parse, element_path, prop_name, value):
      """ Assigns the value to the parsed parent element and then returns it """
  
      element = get_element(parent_to_parse)
  
      if element is None:
          return None
  
      if element_path and not element_exists(element, element_path):
          element = insert_element(element, 0, element_path)
  
      if not isinstance(value, string_types):
          value = u''
  
      setattr(element, prop_name, value)
  
      return element