Entity References in attributes

[Paul van der Maas <pa...@stunning-stuff.com>]

Hi,

 

I'm parsing a XSL template into a DOM tree using the DocumentBuilder and
after that I visit every Node in the tree using a NodeIterator.

I also visit every attribute Node and their values. The reason I go over the
tree is because I need to find all entity references and do something every
time I encounter one.

I can find all the entity references that are in the document itself, but it
seems as though the DocumentBuilder doesn't generate any nodes for entity
references contained in attributes.

For instance, if I have the following XML:

 

 

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

<!DOCTYPE a

[

  <!ENTITY foo "foo">

  <!ENTITY bar "bar">

]>

<a attr="before&foo;after">

  &bar;

</a>

 

Parsing this document and then using a NodeIterator to visit the nodes gives
me these nodes:

 

Node a (element)

Node attr (attribute)

Node beforeafter (text)

Node bar (entity reference)

 

As you see, the entity reference &foo; in between the text before and after
in the attribute attr is nowhere to be found. I can't figure out where it
went.

I couldn't find any information about this on Google, that's why I'm turning
here before I report this as a bug.

Anyone know what is going on? Let me know if you need more information. Any
help is very much appreciated!

 

Thanks,

 

Paul van der Maas

Re: Entity References in attributes

[Michael Glavassevich <mr...@ca.ibm.com>]

Hi Paul,

Xerces has no support for preserving entity references in attribute values.
See previous discussion on this topic here [1] and here [2].

Thanks.

[1] http://marc.info/?t=117027061700003&r=1&w=2
[2] http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/XERCESJ-1225

Michael Glavassevich
XML Parser Development
IBM Toronto Lab
E-mail: mrglavas@ca.ibm.com
E-mail: mrglavas@apache.org

"Paul van der Maas" <pa...@stunning-stuff.com> wrote on 05/28/2008 03:59:02
AM:

> Hi,
>
> I?m parsing a XSL template into a DOM tree using the DocumentBuilder
> and after that I visit every Node in the tree using a NodeIterator.
> I also visit every attribute Node and their values. The reason I go
> over the tree is because I need to find all entity references and do
> something every time I encounter one.
> I can find all the entity references that are in the document
> itself, but it seems as though the DocumentBuilder doesn?t generate
> any nodes for entity references contained in attributes.
> For instance, if I have the following XML:
>
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
> <!DOCTYPE a
> [
>   <!ENTITY foo "foo">
>   <!ENTITY bar ?bar?>
> ]>
> <a attr=?before&foo;after?>
>   &bar;
> </a>
>
> Parsing this document and then using a NodeIterator to visit the
> nodes gives me these nodes:
>
> Node a (element)
> Node attr (attribute)
> Node beforeafter (text)
> Node bar (entity reference)
>
> As you see, the entity reference &foo; in between the text before
> and after in the attribute attr is nowhere to be found. I can?t
> figure out where it went.
> I couldn?t find any information about this on Google, that?s why I?m
> turning here before I report this as a bug.
> Anyone know what is going on? Let me know if you need more
> information. Any help is very much appreciated!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Paul van der Maas