general encoding questions

When using Apache SOAP-RPC, I am thinking I've addressed both serialization and encoding with the following code:

QUESTION #1. Is this correct?
When I don't use Apache SOAP-RPC but code SOAP low-level, as in:

java.net.URL endpoint = null;
        String  stanleyWebservicesEndpointURL  =   ConfigManager.getProperty( "WebservicesEndpoint" ) ;
        try
        {
            endpoint = new java.net.URL(WebservicesEndpointURL);
        }
        catch (MalformedURLException e)
        {
            System.out.println("Malformed URL Exception*****");
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }
        java.net.URLConnection con = null;
        try
        {
            con     =   endpoint.openConnection ();
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
            System.out.println("IO Exception GETTING URLConnection *****");
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }
        con.setDoInput (true);
        con.setDoOutput (true);
        con.setUseCaches (false);
        con.setAllowUserInteraction(false);
        con.setRequestProperty ("Content-Length", Integer.toString(request.length));
        con.setRequestProperty ("Content-Type", "text/xml");
        con.setRequestProperty ("SOAPAction", "\"https://cc.abc.com/swk/SubmitData\"");
        OutputStream out = null;
        try
        {
            out = con.getOutputStream ();
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            e.printStackTrace();
            System.out.println("IO Exception GETTING OUTPUT STREAM *****");
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }
        try
        {
            out.write (request);
            out.flush ();
            out.close();
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
                        System.out.println("IO Exception ON outputStream    WRITE, FLUSH, or CLOSE*****");
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }

QUESTION #2:
what would be a way to solve requirements for serialization and encoding? (I am currently replacing by-hand SOAP-Body XML angle brackets by XML entities.

QUESTION #3: Why is XML encoded? What problem is solved by XML encoding?