XML doctype does not work 1

[katpal]

Hi to all,
I have the following XML parsed with javascript.
I added a doctype - however the #PCDATA type of element SUMMARY does not work. (if I remove the '&' it works)
What am I doing wrong?

XML code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>  
<!DOCTYPE catalog [
<!ELEMENT catalog (car)>
<!ELEMENT car (marc,model,summary)>
<!ELEMENT marc (#PCDATA)> 
<!ELEMENT model (#PCDATA)> 
<!ELEMENT summary (#PCDATA)> 
]>
      
<catalog>           
  <car>              
    <marc>Renault</marc>
	<model>Clio</model>
	 <motor>sample </motor>  
	<summary> sample </summary> 	     
  </car>          
  <car>             
    <marc>Audi</marc>             
    <model>A4</model>                
    <type>Break</type>                
    <motor>Diesel</motor>  
    <summary> this is a sample summary for no & </summary>       
</car>       
 </catalog>

 

[MakeItSo]

You can't have ampersands (&) in an open text node. You need to either escape them as entity & or put the whole shebang in a CDATA block.

“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” (Kofi Annan)
Oppose SOPA, PIPA, ACTA; measures to curb freedom of information under whatever name whatsoever.

 

[katpal]

Hi MaketItSo,
thanks for the reply.
But I thought that this is what <!ELEMENT summary (#PCDATA)> did - so developers would not have to define a CDATA blocks in all instances of the same elements.
If not, what is the purpose of having it then?

K.

 

[MakeItSo]

Hi K.

PCDATA means "parsed character data" while CDATA means "character data".
PCDATA simply means "I won't further specify the contents of this node, just treat it as a normal XML text node" while CDATA blocks may contain any kind of garbage whatsoever and must be written like this:

[b]<![CDATA[[/b]&%<>[b]]]>[/b]

While PCData must be written like this:

<some html & + whatever>

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCDATA

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDATA

Cheers,
MakeItSo


“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” (Kofi Annan)
Oppose SOPA, PIPA, ACTA; measures to curb freedom of information under whatever name whatsoever.

 

[katpal]

ok I see, thanks a lot for the clarification!
Would make great sense though if we could clarify CDATA at the DTD level (just once).

K.