Hi there

I have looked in a lot of places for an answer to this, so I apologize if it has already been answered - I couldn't find the solution.

I'm converting XML to HTML using XSLT/PHP. Works perfectly, except that I can't include German characters in the text. That produces an xslt error (bad token). What do I have to do so that I can include the following characters in the XML: ä, ö, ü, Ä, Ö, Ü, ß and have them appear correctly in the HTML

Thanks for any hints you can offer

Norm

The easiest way is to use Unicode. Make sure that the editor or system you use to create the xml file can create files using utf-8 encoding. Then as long as you are not using an esoteric font you will be okay.
If you can't follow this, explain how the xml file is created.

Joe (MVP - xml)

Thanks, Joe. The files are created using XML Spy and the first line of each file is, of course:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

So, I can't really see what the problem is. Now of course, when I write the HTML to a variable ($result), I could do a string replace. So I could include, say, "uumlaut" in the middle of a word and then do a string replace to change it to "&uuml;", which would be the correct HTML entity for "ü". However, that assumes that I have control over what is in the XML file, but in many cases I want to call a remote XML file over which I have no control.

I tried writing "&uuml;" straight into an XML file, but the Sablotron processor threw an error (bad token).

PHP has the functions utf8_encode() and utf8_decode(), but I'm not sure if/how these can help me because, to tell you the truth, my knowledge of the problem with character encoding is shakey at best.

Thank you for any further light you can shed on this

Norm

If you email me the xml and xsl files (joefawcett AT hotmail.com). I will have a look. It's no use posting them as encoding can be lost. Can you also explain exactly how you do the transform?

Joe (MVP - xml)

OK - will do in the next 10 mins.

Thanks

Norm

Norman

Not received, did you sort this out?

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Joe

Yeah, I sent it to you a couple of days ago. I'll try again.

Norm

OK - I sent it again 1 minute ago, to joefawcett at hotmail.com

Norm

Received the files, I don't use php but the xml file you sent was not utf-8 encoded but as you copied after opening in IE this may have caused it. If I opened it in my text editor, removed the extra bits piut in by IE (the dashes to mark expansion points) and saved as a utf-8 file it viewed fine. On the other hand it might be the way it is handled in php because you load it as a string not as a file. This often causes encoding to be lost, in VB for example strings are utf-16.

Perhaps you could search and replace using xml dom instead of string manipulation?

Hope this is of some help.

Joe (MVP - xml)

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Joe

Hi Joe

Thanks for the info. If I try using PHP function utf8_encode() on the string, it might solve the problem. I convert it to a string because the Sablotron processor requires this. If the IE display is adding unwanted stuff, I can always do a string replace before UTF-8 encoding. I would need to have a look at what that 'stuff' is. I really don't know much about utf-8 or indeed XML.

Anyway, I'll get on it and let you know if I succeed. Thanks for your help.

Norm