XML validation problem

[tinggg]

Hi

When I use a url with more than one = symbol e.g.

http://www.fis.org.nz/index.php?map=yes&app=BreakOut

the xml fails to validate. The reason given is that "the production 'entity ref' not satisfied"

- I looked up the entity escape character for = and got

& # 6 1 ;

[I had to seperate the & # 6 1 ; with a space between each character in order to get them to appear here]

- I replaced the = with the entity escape character but that didn't work either.

Can anyone help me with where I am doing wrong?

Many thanks

[kgun]

Why do you use decimal character references and not entitiy references?

< = &lt;
& = &amp;
> = &gt;
" = &quot;
' = &apos;

[tinggg]

Hi kgun

that worked for http://www.fis.org.nz/index.php?map=...p;app=BreakOut

but for http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?...xparentid=1028

replacing '&' with &amp; doesn't render a well formed url - do you know why that is? Is there anything else in this url that I need to escape other than the '&'?

And when I replace:

http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.a...=39907&id1=305
with
http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.a...07&amp;id1=305

Though the url validates as well-formed if you put both into a browser the well-formed link appears to be broken.

Is there any online tool that converts mal-formed urls into well formed ones?

Thanks

[kgun]

Originally Posted by tinggg

but for http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?...xparentid=1028

replacing '&' with &amp; doesn't render a well formed url - do you know why that is? Is there anything else in this url that I need to escape other than the '&'?

No I can not immediately see that if you replace all three instances of & with &amp; But I am unsure of the word "document" in the URL query. Have you tried with other words in the URL?

Originally Posted by tinggg

And when I replace:

http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.a...=39907&id1=305
with
http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.a...07&amp;id1=305

Though the url validates as well-formed if you put both into a browser the well-formed link appears to be broken.

My bolding: What do you mean?

Originally Posted by tinggg

Is there any online tool that converts mal-formed urls into well formed ones?

Try to google it with the relevant KW's. I use Dreamweaver's, inbuilt XML validator:

File + Check page + validate as xml.

Then you usually get meaningful error messages, so you find the error. That is in my way also the best way to do it, since you learn how to write well-formed code.

You find a lot of tools on my site:

MultiFinanceIT

Along the left edge under the heading "Quality control". Scroll down.

Alternatively and fast, especially in FF: CTRL + F + Quality control

[tinggg]

thanks for the info Kgun

Originally Posted by tinggg
And when I replace:

http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.a...=39907&id1=305
with
http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.a...07&amp;id1=305

Though the url validates as well-formed if you put both into a browser the well-formed link appears to be broken.

The mal-formed url is:

http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.aspx?id0=39907&id1=305

When I make this well-formed, by escaping the ampersand, I change the link to:

http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.aspx?id0=39907&id1=305

However if I put

http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.aspx?id0=39907&id1=305

in a browser I get a runtime error

Server Error in '/' Application.
Runtime Error
Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.

Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a <customErrors> tag within a "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This <customErrors> tag should then have its "mode" attribute set to "Off".

<!-- Web.Config Configuration File -->

<configuration>
<system.web>
<customErrors mode="Off"/>
</system.web>
</configuration>


Notes: The current error page you are seeing can be replaced by a custom error page by modifying the "defaultRedirect" attribute of the application's <customErrors> configuration tag to point to a custom error page URL.

<!-- Web.Config Configuration File -->

<configuration>
<system.web>
<customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="mycustompage.htm"/>
</system.web>
</configuration>

I don't understand why this is happening...btw, these are sites I am just linking to, I don't have any control over the source.

thanks for your help and the resources

[kgun]

Originally Posted by tinggg

I don't understand why this is happening...btw, these are sites I am just linking to, I don't have any control over the source.

thanks for your help and the resources

My bolding.

Simple answer. Because the coding from the server side is "wrong".

And the browser do not translate the url with &amp; that does not exist to the url with the &, that exists.

The correct way is for the third party to code the url with &amp; from the start to make it well-formed in the xml space.

There are a lot of such problems with affilate links. Even large providers supply mal-formed code. You have two choices:

• Delete the link.
• Accept invalid code.

[tinggg]

thanks kgun - at least I now know its not something I am doing or not doing.

T

[kgun]

Some people struggle for standards. Cite from my favorite XML + PHP Robert Richards (2006) "Pro PHP XML and Web Services" Apress, paper edition, page 17.

"Except for markup delimiters or within a comment, PI or, CDATA section, & and < can never be used directly. The > character must never be used when creating a string containing ]]> within content and not being used at that time to close a CDATA section. The double and single quote characters must never be used in literal form within an attribute value. Attribute values may be enclosed within either double or single quotes, so to avoid potential conflicts, those characters are not allowed within the value. All these characters, according to their particular rule sets, must be represented using either the numeric character references or the entity references."

My bolding.

Recommendation 1: Never advice a person new to web development to learn HTML. Say that (s)he should not learn that bad dialect. Advice her / him to learn XML or at least XHTML from the very start. Then (s)he will be used to write well-formed code from the beginning and (s)he will have no problem understanding HTML.

Recommendation 2: Buy the above book of Robert Richards if you do not already own it. It is soon, not least if you care about developing for Web 2.0 (AJAX and XML driven sites etc.) worth it's weight in gold.

Related thread: The XML family of technologies will revolutionize web linking etc.

Note: There is also a new trend on databases. Object oriented databases have not been so popular so long, even if they should since they are much more flexible than traditional relational database. E.g. in a pure OO database, a relation is a reference and fields can contain mixed content etc. Native XML databases (NXD) specializes in XML storage. An NXD, uses XML technologies like XPath and the Document Object Model (DOM) to create and manipulate documents within the database. Traditional relational databases, however, have also made strides in this area. Many begin to include advanced XML features.

Think of the flexibility of an OO Database. You can store a movie in one record (row) and a picture in another record in the same field (column).

Time will show if the NDX concept becomes the final starter (and driver) for OO (relational) Databases like Versant and FlexPro

P. S. I was so lucky that I participated at a lecture with Kristen Nygaard on this topic (OODB PHYLA) and BETA before he died.