setting xml as CData

sbutt · June 15th, 2011, 07:38 AM

I want to include in my xml response an element that must contain a chunk of someother xml as Cdata:

For example:

Code:

	<Extras>
			<Extra>
				<AdditionalInfo><![CDATA[
				<baggagePrices paxTypes="ADT,CHD" rulesPerDirection="false">
					<baggagePrice currency="EUR" description="0 Bags &amp; Online Check-in" id="0" maxTotalWeight="15" maxTotalWeightUnit="kg" pieces="0" price="0.00"/>
				
				</baggagePrices>
				]]></AdditionalInfo>
			</Extra>
		</Extras>

In the above example the element "AdditionalInfo" shoudl contain "baggagePrices" as CData.

I have tried with the following code:

Code:

	<xsl:template match="baggagePrices">
		<Extra>
		<xsl:text>&lt;![CDATA[</xsl:text>
		<AdditionalInfo>
				<xsl:copy-of select="."/>
		<AdditionalInfo>		
		<xsl:text>]]&gt;</xsl:text>
		</Extra>
	</xsl:template>

But the response includes <![CDATA ..]]> instead of <![CDATA ..]]>

I have also tried

Code:

 	<xsl:output encoding="UTF-8" version="1.0" method="xml" indent="yes" cdata-section-elements="baggagePrices"/>

but then Cdata is not appearing and the xml is copied as it is.

Pls help.

Martin Honnen · June 15th, 2011, 07:51 AM

If your XSLT processor supports "disable-output-escaping" it you can try to hack that with

Code:

  <AdditionalInfo><xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;[CDATA[</xsl:text>
     <xsl:copy-of select="."/>
  <xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes">]]&gt;</xsl:text></AdditionalInfo>

A cleaner solution would be to use cdata-section-elements="AdditionalInfo" and then

Code:

  <AdditionalInfo><xsl:value-of select="saxon:serialize(.)"/></AdditionalInfo>

where saxon:serialize is http://www.saxonica.com/documentatio.../serialize.xml.

sbutt · June 15th, 2011, 07:56 AM

i am using xslt 1.0

Martin Honnen · June 15th, 2011, 08:05 AM

Which XSLT 1.0 processor do you use? Perhaps it has an extension function similar to saxon:serialize or it allows implementing such functions.
And my first suggestion with the disable-output-escaping hack does not depend on the XSLT version but rather on the XSLT processor serializing the output and supporting disable-output-escaping while doing that.

sbutt · June 15th, 2011, 08:20 AM

i am usign Xalan.

Martin Honnen · June 15th, 2011, 08:25 AM

I don't use Xalan, according to http://xml.apache.org/xalan-j/extensionslib.html the Java version of Xalan does not seem to have an extension function to serialize a node. So you will have to try the CDATA hack. Or you could use a pure XSLT implementation of serializing a node, like http://lenzconsulting.com/xml-to-string/.

sbutt · June 15th, 2011, 08:46 AM

i did this

Code:

<xsl:template match="baggagePrices">
		<Extra>
		
		<AdditionalInfo>
		  <!--xsl:copy-of select="."/-->
		  <xsl:call-template name="xml-to-string">
				<xsl:with-param name="baggage" select="."/>
		  </xsl:call-template>
		  
		</AdditionalInfo>		
		
		</Extra>
	</xsl:template>

but now getting lots of .CourierMarshalUnmarshalExceptions...

By using <xsl:import href="xml-to-string.xsl"/>

Martin Honnen · June 15th, 2011, 09:34 AM

I have made two examples that work fine for me with Xalan 2.7.1 Java.
The input XML is as follows:

Code:

<root>
  <foo>
    <bar>
      <baz>a > b</baz>
    </bar>
  </foo>
</root>

The first XSLT sample uses the CDATA output "hack" with disable-output-escaping:

Code:

<xsl:stylesheet
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  version="1.0">
  
  <xsl:template match="@* | node()">
    <xsl:copy> 
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>
  
  <xsl:template match="foo">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes">&lt;![CDATA[</xsl:text>
      <xsl:copy-of select="node()"/>
      <xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes">]]&gt;</xsl:text>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>
  
</xsl:stylesheet>

With that Xalan outputs

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root>
  <foo><![CDATA[
    <bar>
      <baz>a &gt; b</baz>
    </bar>
  ]]></foo>
</root>

The second stylesheet imports the one I linked to and uses cdata-section-elements="foo":

Code:

<xsl:stylesheet
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  version="1.0">
  
  <xsl:import href="http://lenzconsulting.com/xml-to-string/xml-to-string.xsl"/>
  
  <xsl:output method="xml" cdata-section-elements="foo"/>
  
  <xsl:template match="/">
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </xsl:template>
   
  <xsl:template match="@* | node()">
    <xsl:copy> 
      <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>
  
  <xsl:template match="foo">
    <xsl:copy>
      <xsl:call-template name="xml-to-string">
        <xsl:with-param name="node-set" select="node()"/>
      </xsl:call-template>
    </xsl:copy>
  </xsl:template>
  
</xsl:stylesheet>

With that Xalan outputs

Code:

<root>
  <foo><![CDATA[
    <bar>
      <baz>a > b</baz>
    </bar>
  ]]></foo>
</root>

So far as far as I can tell both suggested approaches solve the problem.

sbutt · June 15th, 2011, 10:24 AM

unfortunately it never worked on my side:(

Code:

	<xsl:import href="http://lenzconsulting.com/xml-to-string/xml-to-string.xsl"/>
	
  <xsl:output method="xml" cdata-section-elements="AdditionalInfo"/>

...

<xsl:template match="baggagePrices">
		<Extra>
			<AdditionalInfo>
				<xsl:copy>
					<xsl:call-template name="xml-to-string">
						<xsl:with-param name="node-set" select="node()"/>
					</xsl:call-template>
				</xsl:copy>
			</AdditionalInfo>
		</Extra>
	</xsl:template>

much thanks anyway.

Martin Honnen · June 15th, 2011, 10:30 AM

Well you will have to decide what you want, if you want the "AdditionalInfo" element to contain a CDATA then don't put any element nodes in there, as you currently do with your xsl: copy.