Forum Discussion

johnsonted's avatar
johnsonted
Visitor
8 years ago

XML Format Issue

My channel reads from an XML file to get info on my videos. The XML content is formatted so that special XML characters get escaped.

For example, in the XML file where there is a " character this is escaped as &quot; and < turns into &lt; etc . Just the standard stuff for XML content.

The issue I have is after my channel reads the XML file, and then I display on the channel for example the video description, instead of changing &quot; back into a " character for display, it just leaves it as &quot; which obviously doesn't look good to the user.

So my question is what do I need to do to convert these special escaped things back into the right characters for display? Is there an existing function that does this already, or should I just create my own?
Roku Developer Program

5 Replies

  • NB_'s avatar
    NB_
    Roku Guru
    8 years ago
    it would seem you "over-escaped" things, like say escaping inside <![CDATA[ ]]> or double-escaping.
    Give example, let's see what's up.
  • johnsonted's avatar
    johnsonted
    Visitor
    8 years ago
    Here is a sample XML file that has an escaped special character:

    <feed>
    <show>
    <contentId>3313</contentId>
    <free>Y</free>
    <allowAccess>true</allowAccess>
    <loggedIn>false</loggedIn>
    <description>
    In Tom McCook&apos;s latest video, Introducing New Concepts, he shares what is new in his teaching and how he shares this information with his clients. As we continue to understand more about the body, it is important for you to keep learning so you can help your clients the best you can.
    </description>
    <classType>PI</classType>
    <classTypeName>Introduction</classTypeName>
    <numChapters>1</numChapters>
    <chapter>
    <chapterImage>
    http://images.pilatesanytime.com/2017/12/08/vthumb_tom_171117_PA5521-70566.jpg
    </chapterImage>
    <chapterName/>
    <chapterDesc/>
    <chapterNum>1</chapterNum>
    <videoId>6855</videoId>
    <position>0</position>
    <chpaterMins>1</chpaterMins>
    </chapter>
    </show>
    </feed>


    I have a line like this in my Roku code to get the description:

    item.description        = validstr(curChapter.description.GetText())


    When I output the description to the screen, it does not change "&apos;" into an apostrophe like I hoped it would. Because it's XML I'm forced to encode the apostrophe like that.

    Any help appreciated.
  • NB_'s avatar
    NB_
    Roku Guru
    8 years ago
    "johnsonted" wrote:
    When I output the description to the screen, it does not change "&apos;" into an apostrophe like I hoped it would.

    it does for me:
    Brightscript Debugger> xml = createObject("roXmlElement") 
    Brightscript Debugger> xml.parse("<description>In Tom McCook&apos;s latest video,</description>")
    Brightscript Debugger> ? xml.getText()
    In Tom McCook's latest video,

    That custom function `validstr()`... it doesn't re-encode ' back to &apos;, i hope?
  • johnsonted's avatar
    johnsonted
    Visitor
    8 years ago
    Here's that function and related ones. They are all taken from the Roku example code.

    Function validstr(obj As Dynamic) As String
        if isnonemptystr(obj) return obj
        return ""
    End Function

    Function isstr(obj as dynamic) As Boolean
        if obj = invalid return false
        if GetInterface(obj, "ifString") = invalid return false
        return true
    End Function

    Function isnonemptystr(obj)
        if isnullorempty(obj) return false
        return true
    End Function

    Function isnullorempty(obj)
        if obj = invalid return true
        if not isstr(obj) return true
        if Len(obj) = 0 return true
        return false
    End Function


    The text in this particular example is being displayed on a "roSpringboardScreen" if you think that might make a difference.
  • johnsonted's avatar
    johnsonted
    Visitor
    8 years ago
    Aha! I have found the problem. When I looked at the source code (not the output on my web browser) I saw it was indeed a double-encoding problem.

    The source code actually had this &amp;apos; but I had been previewing in Chrome which displays it as &apos; and only from viewing source code in chrome did I catch it. So the issue has nothing to do with the Roku code and is a problem with the XML encoding on the server.

    Thanks!