Can't decode special characters from xml

[mr curious]

Hi all,

I've got this script which converts data from a mysql database to an xml object using the DOM and printing it out. Everything works fine, however some of the text contains ampersands (&) which gets printed as '&amp'

here's the script:

PHP Code:

<? 
function getdata($type) 
{ 
    $mysqHost = "xxx"; 
    $mysqlUsr = "xxx"; 
    $mysqlPass = "xxx"; 
     
     
    $conn = mysql_connect($mysqHost,$mysqlUsr,$mysqlPass); 
     
    mysql_select_db("xxx") ; 

    $sql = ("SELECT * FROM `$type`;"); 
    $result =  mysql_query($sql); 
    $doc = new DomDocument('1.0'); 
    $type = $str = str_replace(' ','',$type); 

    $root = $doc->createElement($type.'List'); 
        $root = $doc->appendChild($root);   
    while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) 
    { 
         
       $company= $doc->createElement($type); 
       $company = $root->appendChild($company);     
       foreach($row as $fieldname => $fieldvalue) 
       { 
            if($fieldname !='id') 
            { 
            $child = $doc->createElement($fieldname); 
            $child = $company->appendChild($child); 
            //add data to the new element 
            $value = $doc->createTextNode($fieldvalue); 
            $value = $child->appendChild($value); 
            } 
             
        } 
    } 
    $str = $doc->saveXML(); 

    print $str; 
} 


$type = $_REQUEST['type']; 
        getdata($type);     

if($conn){ mysql_close($conn); } 
?>

I've tried to decode $fieldValue using html_entity_decode, but it doesn't work. I really don't know how to fix this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Fou-Lu]

Use createCDATASection instead of createTextNode. That should fix that issue.

[mr curious]

Thanks It worked! I can't believe I struggled for such a long time and there was such a simple answer.

Thanks again Fou-Lu

[mr curious]

Just out of interest, howcome createCDATASection works as opposed to createTextNode?

[Fou-Lu]

CDATA sections are non-parseable character data while text nodes are text blocks inserted into the XML which will parse all non-CDATA blocks (ie: PCDATA sections). & is registered as an XML entity, so it automatically coverts it. Things like < and > will also automatically convert to their &lt; &gt; entities when writing using the dom.