Android Question Problem with Http Post and Json

[RVP]

I am using a Http job and Post String to communicate with a Webservice, I just ran into an error with a user who typed an & into a description field that is included in the data being sent. The formatted SOAP envelope looks like

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:kal="http://">
   <soap:Header/>
   <soap:Body>
      <kal:dtUploadCompanyTimeTickets>
         <kal:Json>[{
"custid":"ASSHEA",
"phase":"E06","task":"E06",
"rateid":"CNS150",
"description":"Call and GoToMeeting with Amin and Jollean to make the necessary changes to the NL & NB tax rates",
"hours":"0.25",
"transdate":"2016-07-04",
"timelink":"201607181437025",
"projectdetailid":"81"}]
</kal:Json>
         <kal:compId>KAL</kal:compId>
         <kal:userid>JSZAKAL</kal:userid>
         <kal:pw></kal:pw>
         <kal:PcBatch>######</kal:PcBatch>
      </kal:dtUploadCompanyTimeTickets>
   </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

The & in the description element is causing an ERROR 400 as the post is interpreting it as indicating another parameter and is therefore breaking the service. How can I avoid this?

 

[OliverA]

The & in the description element is causing an ERROR 400 as the post is interpreting it as indicating another parameter and is therefore breaking the service. How can I avoid this?

It's not a bug, but part of XML, see http://xml.silmaril.ie/specials.html

This link (code posted by Erel to escape the 5 special characters) may help https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/escapexml-code-snippet.35720/#content

 

[RVP]

It's not a bug, but part of XML, see http://xml.silmaril.ie/specials.html

This link (code posted by Erel to escape the 5 special characters) may help https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/escapexml-code-snippet.35720/#content

I will try that, however I suspect it will cause an issue on the other side when I try to parse the JSON I am passing?

 

[OliverA]

I will try that, however I suspect it will cause an issue on the other side when I try to parse the JSON I am passing?

You'll have to reverse the process. Once more, Erel provides some code you can use, see https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/t...ake-it-normal-html-decoder.58856/#post-370577
https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/t...ake-it-normal-html-decoder.58856/#post-370577
If it gets more complicated (what about an < that should be a < since that was in the original text), you may need to investigate some sort of SOAP class that manages all this fun stuff (maybe this https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/soap-is-easier-with-soap-class.56164/ or something more commercial)

 

[RVP]

You'll have to reverse the process. Once more, Erel provides some code you can use, see https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/t...ake-it-normal-html-decoder.58856/#post-370577
If it gets more complicated (what about an < that should be a < since that was in the original text), you may need to investigate some sort of SOAP class that manages all this fun stuff (maybe this https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/soap-is-easier-with-soap-class.56164/ or something more commercial)

I looked at the module, it doesn't really deal with any of that. I might look at how .net deals with it as I have a windows program that uses the same service and it has no issue with special characters.

 

[Erel]

It is very simple. You just need to escape the illegal characters. It will work on the server side without any changes.

 

[RVP]

How would you escape it, do you mean just the character or the whole element. I tried a couple of things that didn't work, so what would the format be?

 

[Erel]

You didn't post the code that creates the XML message.

If you are using XmlBuilder then it will be escaped for you.

You can use the smart strings literal to escape the problematic xml entities:

Log($""description":"$xml{EditText1.Text}""$)

 

[RVP]

I have the xml defined as a string and then I just use replace to insert the data.

 

[Erel]

Dim s As String = XmlTemplate.Replace("KEY_TO_REPLACE", $"$xml{EditText1.Text}"$)

 

[RVP]

Well I ended up changing the string to a byte array, then to a hex string and converting it back in the webservice. That way it doesn't matter what reserved characters are in it, it always works fine.