BPEL beta2 - special characters and XML

[wugf]

I try to assign some special characters as input value, for example

<assign>
 <copy>
 <from expression="'-?/">='"/>
 <to variable="inputVariable"/>
 </copy>
 </assign>

it works and I got

-?/">=

as the result.
But when I replaces the ?>? with ?<?

<assign>
 <copy>
 <from expression="'-?/"<='"/>
 <to variable=" inputVariable"/>
 </copy>
 </assign>

I got the following error message:

AxisFault
faultCode: {http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/}Client
faultSubcode:
faultString: The content of elements must consist of well-formed character data
or markup.
faultActor:
faultNode:
faultDetail:
{http://xml.apache.org/axis/}stackTrace: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException:
The content of elements must consist of well-formed character data or markup.

So my first question is how to assign ?<? in an input.

Looks like it takes ?<? as starting a markup, my second question is how to assign XML as an input value.

For example, I need to assign this as an input:

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

I try

<assign>
 <copy>
 <from expression="concat(
 '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>',
 '<Sample>TEST</Sample>')"/>
 <to variable=" inputVariable"/>
 </copy>
 </assign>

But I got error message:

AxisFault
faultCode: {http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/}Client
faultSubcode:
faultString: The processing instruction target matching "[xX][mM][lL]"
; is not allowed.
faultActor:
faultNode:
faultDetail:
{http://xml.apache.org/axis/}stackTrace: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException:
The processing instruction target matching "[xX][mM][lL]" is not allow
ed.

Please shed some lights on this. Thanks in advance.

[aguizar]

The left angle bracket is illegal in attribute values. Use &lt; to escape it.

Section 2.4, 2.4 Character Data and Markup of the XML 1.0 specification discusses this in detail.

[wugf]

Alex, I did use escaped strings "&quot;", "&gt;" and "&lt;" for the double-quote character ("), the right angle bracket (>) and the left angle bracket (<), respectively, in my testing. I don't know why they are changed to their literal form, even I Previewed them to make sure they were escaped strings before Submit. (I checked the 3 boxes to disable HTML, BBCode and Smilies, but on left side, the Options always show them ON)

Here I re-submit again:
----------------------------------------------
I try to assign some special characters as input value, for example

 <assign>
 <copy>
 <from expression="'-?/&quot;&gt;='"/>
 <to variable="inputVariable"/>
 </copy>
 </assign>

it works and I got -?/">= as the result.
But when I replaces the "&gt;" (escaped string) with "&lt;" (escaped string)

 <assign>
 <copy>
 <from expression="'-?/&quot;&lt;='"/>
 <to variable=" inputVariable"/>
 </copy>
 </assign>

I got the following error message:

AxisFault
faultCode: {http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/}Client
faultSubcode:
faultString: The content of elements must consist of well-formed character data
or markup.
faultActor:
faultNode:
faultDetail:
{http://xml.apache.org/axis/}stackTrace: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException:
The content of elements must consist of well-formed character data or markup.

So my first question is how to assign "&lt;" (escaped string) in an input.

Looks like it takes "&lt;" (escaped string) as starting a markup, my second question is how to assign XML as an input value.

For example, I need to assign this as an input:

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

I try

 <assign>
 <copy>
 <from expression="concat(
 '&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&quot;?&gt;',
 '&lt;Sample&gt;TEST&lt;/Sample&gt;')"/>
 <to variable=" inputVariable"/>
 </copy>
 </assign>

But I got error message:

AxisFault
faultCode: {http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/}Client
faultSubcode:
faultString: The processing instruction target matching &quot;[xX][mM][lL]&quot
; is not allowed.
faultActor:
faultNode:
faultDetail:
{http://xml.apache.org/axis/}stackTrace: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException:
The processing instruction target matching &quot;[xX][mM][lL]&quot; is not allow
ed.

Please shed some lights on this. Thanks in advance.

[aguizar]

Now I see the problem. The XML parser reads the escaped left angle bracket into the character itself and writes it literally to the SOAP message, thus producing ill-formed markup.
Try escaping the escape sequence so that it appears literally in the resulting SOAP message:
&amp;lt;