? , & problems in XML using PHP

Question

I am creating a XML file from a database using PHP..

I am following a syntax something like this

$query = "SELECT * FROM t1 ORDER BY field1";

$resultID = mysql_query($query, $linkID) or die("Data not found.");

$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($resultID);

$xml_output .="\t\t\t\t\t\t<given_name>"  . $row['fieldname'] . "</given_name>\n";

echo $xml_output

everything works well and almost a well formed XML is formed.. But there is a problem with some of the characters like &, ? etc., How can i overcome this?? I dont want to string replace these..

I want my XML to be off a special structure which needs to be validated against a specified schema..

Help appreciated..

Error something like this : Value 'Morre?' is not facet-valid with respect to pattern '[\x00-/:->@-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-\v10ffff]*[\x00-\x08\x0b-\f\x0e-\x1f!-/:->@-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-\v10ffff][\x00-\x08\x0b-\f\x0e-\x1f!-/:->@-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-\v10ffff]*[\x00-/:->@-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-??-\v10ffff]*'. [Error] XML.xml:5747:32: cvc-type.3.1.3: The value 'Morre?' of element 'surname' is not valid. — Dumb_Shock
– Dumb_Shock, Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 15:42
It looks like you are trying to build XML documents by mashing together strings. Don't do that. Use an XML library. — Quentin
– Quentin, Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 15:42
And some other error like XML not well formed because of '&' — Dumb_Shock
– Dumb_Shock, Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 15:42
You should use DOMDocument to create the XML instead of doing it by hand. — Francois Deschenes
– Francois Deschenes, Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 15:42

i.am.michiel · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-11 15:48:18Z

3

Two solutions come up immediatly :

Use <[[CDATA sections. No need in that case to escape special chars.
Escape those chars. & is equals to &. htmlspecialchars is indeed a PHP function to transform your data. But I'd rather go with the first solution.

answered Jul 11, 2011 at 15:48

i.am.michiel

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1 Comment

Raphael Schweikert Over a year ago

What if the data contains ]]>?

Jules · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-11 15:45:07Z

1

Use PHP's htmlspecialchars function to encode your special characters.

answered Jul 11, 2011 at 15:45

Jules

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2 Comments

Raphael Schweikert Over a year ago

htmlentities will produce HTML entities. Most of them do not validate against most XML DTDs/Schemas (unless these define said entities). I think what you want here is htmlspecialchars.

Raphael Schweikert Over a year ago

You’re right, my bad. I think someone posted an answer with htmlentities, thus provoking my reply. I then reloaded the page to see if anything new happened and I pasted without thinking.

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