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Re: When did you vanish, o' CDATA section wrapper?

• From: "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com>
• To: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>,"xml-dev@l..." <xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:46:30 -0400

At 2012-08-21 17:13 +0000, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
>I opened a document in Notepad and it showed me this:
>
><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
><Document>
>     <![CDATA[
>                 if (a < b) & (b < c) then x = 23;
>     ]]>
></Document>
>
>I will refer to this set of characters
>
>     <![CDATA[]]>
>
>as the "CDATA section wrapper"
>
>That is, it is the CDATA section sans content.
>
>I gave the document to an XML parser. The XML parser ingested the 
>document and then gave its output to an XML application (e.g., an 
>XSLT processor or an XML Schema validator).
>
>document ---> XML Parser ---> XML Application
>
>Somewhere between the time the XML parser ingested the document and 
>the time the XML application ingested the output of the XML parser, 
>the CDATA section wrapper was removed (and reserved characters 
>inside the CDATA section were escaped).

Actually, it was more likely between the application receiving the 
content of the document and the application acting on the content of 
the document.  I wouldn't think the XML processor is the culprit.

As others have noted, any XDM-based application (such as XSLT or 
XQuery) would ignore the CDATA sections that arrived from the XML 
processor and not present the boundaries to the application logic.

Note there is more going on than just parsing.  The XML specification 
does not define an "XML Parser" but does define an "XML Processor":

   http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-xml-20081126/#dt-xml-proc

... and that definition is clear that the processor is delivering the 
content to the application and the application decides what to do 
with it.  So you can safely conclude, I think, that your application 
threw away the CDATA boundaries.

I hope this is regarded as helpful.

. . . . . . . . . Ken


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• References:
  • When did you vanish, o' CDATA section wrapper?
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>