Escaping special characters in XML

[jessjenn]

I want to have special characters in elements so rather than using htmlentities(), I'm using <![CDATA[ ]]>. An example would be the following:

        <DATA>
            <REPORT_DATE><![CDATA[ 11-Nov-2003 ]car & ><<><>< < ]]></REPORT_DATE>
            <IP_RECORD>
                <ADDRESS>67.31.42.63</ADDRESS>
                <HOSTNAME>dialup-67.31.42.63.Dial1.NewYork1.Level3.net</HOSTNAME>
                <OWNER>Broomfield CO 80021 United States</OWNER>
            </IP_RECORD>

        <IP_RECORD>
            <ADDRESS>152.163.253.33</ADDRESS>
            <OWNER>VA 20166 United States</OWNER>
        </IP_RECORD>
    </DATA>

Now, characters such as & > < ' " work fine. The problem is when I use the ] [ characters inside <![CDATA[ ]]>. Is it because I have to escape these bracket characters? In this case "11-Nov-2003 ]" doesn't get displayed, just what follows. It's because of the "]".

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[Weedpacket]

What is the code that is supposed to be displaying it?

[jessjenn]

Thanks for the reply. This is the code:

11-Nov-2003 ]car & ><<><>< <

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by jessjenn
Thanks for the reply. This is the code:


11-Nov-2003 ]car & ><<><>< <

Er, no. that's the code being displayed; I'm asking about the PHP code that is supposed to be displaying that but isn't. (There is nothing special about ] in XML CDATA sections; the only thing you can't have is ]]>).

[jessjenn]

Sorry. Here's the code:

    $x='<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>	
        <DATA>
            <REPORT_DATE><![CDATA['.$string.']]></REPORT_DATE>
            <IP_RECORD id="8814">
                <ADDRESS>67.31.42.63</ADDRESS>
                <HOSTNAME id="2893">dialup-67.31.42.63.Dial1.NewYork1.Level3.net</HOSTNAME>
                <OWNER>Broomfield CO 80021 United States</OWNER>
            </IP_RECORD>
            <IP_RECORD id="2600">
                <ADDRESS>152.163.253.33</ADDRESS>
                <OWNER>VA 20166 United States</OWNER>
            </IP_RECORD>
        </DATA>';

   class XmlC   {
     var $xml_data;
     var $obj_data;
     var $pointer;

 function XmlC()    { // constructor
 }

 function Set_xml_data( &$xml_data ) {
   $this->index = 0;
   $this->pointer[] = &$this->obj_data;

   $this->xml_data = $xml_data;
   $this->xml_parser = xml_parser_create( "UTF-8" );

   xml_parser_set_option( $this->xml_parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, false );
   xml_set_object( $this->xml_parser, &$this );
   xml_set_element_handler( $this->xml_parser, "_startElement", "_endElement");
   xml_set_character_data_handler( $this->xml_parser, "_cData" );

   xml_parse( $this->xml_parser, $this->xml_data, true );
   xml_parser_free( $this->xml_parser );
 }

 function _startElement( $parser, $tag, $attributeList )     {
   foreach( $attributeList as $name => $value )   {
     $value = $this->_cleanString( $value );
     $object->$name = $value;
   }
   eval( "\$this->pointer[\$this->index]->" . $tag . "[] = \$object;" );
   eval( "\$size = sizeof( \$this->pointer[\$this->index]->" . $tag . " );" );
   eval( "\$this->pointer[] = &\$this->pointer[\$this->index]->" . $tag . "[\$size-1];" );

   $this->index++;
 }

 function _endElement( $parser, $tag )     {
   array_pop( $this->pointer );
   $this->index--;
 }

 function _cData( $parser, $data )   {
   if( trim( $data ) ) {
     $this->pointer[$this->index] = trim( $data );
   }
 }

 function _cleanString( $string ) {
   return utf8_decode( trim( $string ) );
 }

   } // end XmlC Class


   // parsing the filename.xml file for IPAddress and it's owner
   #$filename = "filename.xml"; // used if you want to read from a file instead of a string
   $xmlC = new XmlC();          //                  |
   #$xml_data = file_get_contents( $filename );  <--

   $xmlC->Set_XML_data( $x );


//retriving information stored in Address and Owner arrays - sizeof() == count()
$counting=count($xmlC->obj_data->DATA[0]->IP_RECORD); //to find out the number of elements in the array
$IPADDR="";
$OWNER="";
$REPORTDATE="";


for($i=0;$i<$counting;++$i) {
   $IPID[$i]=$xmlC->obj_data->DATA[0]->IP_RECORD[$i]->id[0]; # reading attribute value
   $REPORTDATE[$i]=$xmlC->obj_data->DATA[0]->REPORT_DATE[0]; # reading element values...
   $IPADDR[$i]=$xmlC->obj_data->DATA[0]->IP_RECORD[$i]->ADDRESS[0];
   $OWNER[$i]=$xmlC->obj_data->DATA[0]->IP_RECORD[$i]->OWNER[0];
}

for($i=0;$i<$counting;++$i) {
    echo "$IPADDR[$i] | $OWNER[$i]  |  $IPID[$i]<BR>";
}


   echo( "<pre>\n" ); // shows output in browser
       print_r( $xmlC->obj_data );
   echo( "</pre>\n" );