Illegal XML character �

[Vladimir Bezugliy]

I should save tree to xml file and read it from this file.

I save tree nodes as element <node>.
Value of node I save as text in element <value>.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<node>
<value>┬м╨╜�t�root</value>
</node>

But when I read this file I get SAXException "Illegal XML character �".

I save my value this way

ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream os = new ObjectOutputStream(baos);
 
os.writeObject(treeNode.getValue());
 
String valueString = new String(baos.toByteArray());
Element valueXMLNode = document.createElement("value");
currentXMLNode.appendChild(valueXMLNode);
[B]Text textXMLNode = document.createTextNode(valueString);[/B]
valueXMLNode.appendChild(textXMLNode);

What should I do in order not to write � text in xml file?

[Lasse Koskela]

That snippet of code you posted doesn't (as far as I can see) write anything to disk?

[Vladimir Bezugliy]

Here is some more code

treeNode.setValue("root");
 
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream os = new ObjectOutputStream(baos);
 
os.writeObject(treeNode.getValue());
os.flush();
 
String valueString = new String(baos.toByteArray());
 
os.close();
baos.close();
 
//create child node "value"
//this node will contain CDATA section.
Element valueXMLNode = document.createElement("value");
currentXMLNode.appendChild(valueXMLNode);
 
//create CDATA section
//and store in this section value of the node
CDATASection dataXMLNode = document.createCDATASection(valueString);
valueXMLNode.appendChild(dataXMLNode);

And as result I should get something like this
<value><![CDATA[serialized string "root"]]></value>

but I get this string as result
<value><![CDATA[┬м╨╜]]>�<![CDATA[]]><![CDATA[t]]>�<![CDATA[]]><![CDATA[root]]></value>

And this string is not right look at the "& # 0 ;". It is not correct string.

Where is the bug?

[Lasse Koskela]

I believe the bug is here:

treeNode.setValue("root");
 
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream os = new ObjectOutputStream(baos);
 
os.writeObject(treeNode.getValue());
os.flush();
 
String valueString = new String(baos.toByteArray());

Having the JVM serialize a String object is not the same as writing the String object to a stream.

If you skip the whole ByteArrayOutputStream/ObjectOutputStream stuff and set valueString's value directly to "root", does it work then?

[Vladimir Bezugliy]

It should be possible to use any Object not only Strings.

treeNode.setValue(<<SOME OBJECT>>);

ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
ObjectOutputStream os = new ObjectOutputStream(baos);

//Serialize Object
os.writeObject(treeNode.getValue());
os.flush();

String valueString = new String(baos.toByteArray());

os.close();
baos.close();

//create child node "value"
//this node will contain CDATA section.
Element valueXMLNode = document.createElement("value");
currentXMLNode.appendChild(valueXMLNode);

//Store serialized Object as CDATA section
CDATASection dataXMLNode = document.createCDATASection(valueString);
valueXMLNode.appendChild(dataXMLNode);


And instead of something like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<node>
   <value>┬м╨╜�t�root</value>
</node>

I get next code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<node>
    <value><![CDATA[┬м╨╜]]>�<![CDATA[]]><![CDATA[t]]>�<![CDATA[]]><![CDATA[root]]></value>
</node>

Why there are many CDATA section instead of one section?

[Vladimir Bezugliy]

I am sorry. I forget CDATA section.

Instead of this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<node>
    <value><![CDATA[┬м╨╜root]]></value>
</node>

[Lasse Koskela]

Ok. Object serialization in Java produces a binary output. That binary output may or may not be valid content for an XML message even if it's inside a CDATA block. Now, to solve the need to be able to encode any kind of Java objects into the XML message, you could
1) Base64 encode the serialized bytes before injecting that into the XML and then Base64 decode the stuff you read from the XML before running them through an ObjectInputStream, or
2) Use an XML-to-Java serialization library such as XStream, Castor or Digester.

[Vladimir Bezugliy]

>>Base64 encode the serialized bytes before injecting that into the XML
So, I will use this way.