Embed XML in form variable

[zeon]

Is this possible to include a XML string in the HTML form variable?

Here is the actual XML string:

<corp>
<report permission="10">
<abstract permission="4"/>
<transfer permission="10"/>
<summary permission="5"/>
<billing permission="10"/>
<annuity permission="0"/>
</report>
</corp>

For example if I want to include the xml like this, is it going to work?

<form action="myServlet" method="post">

<input type="hidden" name="xmlFile" value="<corp><report permission="10"><abstract permission="4"/><transfer permission="10"/><summary permission="5"/><billing permission="10"/><annuity permission="0"/></report>
</corp>">

<input type="submit" value="Send">
</form>

-zeon

[cmarshall]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld!

I don't think it should be a problem, as long as you use HTML entities ("&lt;" instead of "<", etc.)

[zeon]

Greetings,

Thanks for the tips! So with the HTML encoding, it shouldn't be a problem in processing the string in the Servlet backend with request.getParameter().

String xmlData = request.getParameter("xmlFile");

That's nice to know!

-zeon

[cmarshall]

If you're reading it like that, then what the server sends up can be "real" XML (not escaped). If you will be including it on an HTML page (like in a <form> element value attribute), then it may need to be escaped. I think that JS-applied values can be unescaped (not sure).

So::

 String xmlData = request.getParameter("xmlFile");
// This may not need to be escaped.
document.getElementById('some_form_element').value=String;
// However, this may.
document.getElementById('some_div_element').innerHTML='<input type="text" value="'+String+'" />';

[zeon]

Ok. We'll try the following encoding works as intended.

<input type="hidden" name="xmlFile" value="&lt;corp>&lt;report permission=&quot;10&quot;&gt;&lt;abstract permission=&quot;4&quot;/&gt;&lt;transfer permission=&quot;10&quot;/&gt;&lt;summary permission=&quot;5&quot;/&gt;&lt;billing permission=&quot;10&quot;/&gt;&lt;annuity permission=&quot;0&quot;/&gt;&lt;/report&gt;
&lt;/corp&gt;">

Thanks,
zeon

[zeon]

Indeed the encoding works as intended.

Thanks!

-zeon

[cmarshall]

Glad it worked out.