XML Parse error (help please)

[tripwater]

I am new to XML. From my understanding the data between the tags is a string that can be in any format.

I am laying out a XSLT file when I find an error in the XML file.

Below is the code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<inventory>
	<name>Inventory Account Totals</name>
	<dategen>3/10/2005 3:00pm</dategen>
	<enddate>3/10/2005</enddate>
	<parts>
		<item>
			<account>121.006</account>
			<desc>Inv - Parts - Briggs & Stratton</desc>
			<total>$1,096.92</total>
		</item>
		<item>
			<account>121.005</account>
			<desc>Inv - Parts - Cub Cadet</desc>
			<total>$2,432.05</total>
		</item>
		
		<parttotal>$3,500</parttotal>
	</parts>
	
	<units>
		<item>
			<account>121.006</account>
			<desc>Inv - Parts - Briggs & Stratton</desc>
			<total>$1,096.92</total>
		</item>
		<item>
			<account>121.005</account>
			<desc>Inv - Parts - Cub Cadet</desc>
			<total>$2,432.05</total>
		</item>
		
		<unittotal>$3,500</parttotal>
	</units>
</inventory>

Here is the error:

The XML page cannot be displayed
Cannot view XML input using XSL style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whitespace is not allowed at this location. Error processing resource 'file:///C:/Documents and Settings/US/Desktop/XML tes...

<desc>Inv - Parts - Briggs & Stratton</desc>
-------------------------------^




Why is this? Is it because of the "&"? I would like to think not. THis will majorly limit what I can do as all of this info is generated dynamically from a database. And I can not filter through everything checking for certain chars. I thought what ever is between an opening and closing tag is safe except of course < > = !=

Any thoughts?

Thank you for any help.

 

[JontyMC]

XML can only contain legal character as specified by the w3c spec for XML. Legal characters are tab, carriage return, line feed, and the legal characters of Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646. For more info, see:

http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/#charsets

So & must be replaced with its proper entity, which is &amp;

Also you doc is not well formed:

<unittotal>$3,500</parttotal>

This is a corrected version of your XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<inventory>
  <name>Inventory Account Totals</name>
  <dategen>3/10/2005 3:00pm</dategen>
  <enddate>3/10/2005</enddate>
  <parts>
    <item>
      <account>121.006</account>
      <desc>Inv - Parts - Briggs &amp; Stratton</desc>
      <total>$1,096.92</total>
    </item>
    <item>
      <account>121.005</account>
      <desc>Inv - Parts - Cub Cadet</desc>
      <total>$2,432.05</total>
    </item>
    <parttotal>$3,500</parttotal>
  </parts>
  <units>
    <item>
      <account>121.006</account>
      <desc>Inv - Parts - Briggs &amp; Stratton</desc>
      <total>$1,096.92</total>
    </item>
    <item>
      <account>121.005</account>
      <desc>Inv - Parts - Cub Cadet</desc>
      <total>$2,432.05</total>
    </item>
    <parttotal>$3,500</parttotal>
  </units>
</inventory>

 

[fhlee]

Hi tripwater,
Not sure if you've solved your problem. Anyway, just thought to offer a tip (in case you're not aware).

You can very quickly convert all the characters in a string to be 'legal' using the server.htmlEncode() method. So, it is actually quite easy...

regards,
- Joseph
============

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

 

[tripwater]

THanks Joseph but the errors I am getting are within the XML file itself. Can you call

<descr>server.htmlEncode(Inv - Parts - Briggs & Stratton)</descr>

in an XML file? I tried it as I am new to all of this and it did not work. I am thinking your solution is for the XSLT not for the XML file. Am I wrong?

Thanks again