HTML Tags in XML Update

Question

I have a unique situation (may be not that unique). I want to update or add HTML tags in an XML element I am writing a PL/SQL Stored Procedure to insert, update or delete elements/attributes from an XML Type column based on the input XML (coming from Java application). SP is called from Java app. For example my XML may loook like
<Description Name="Sales Message">
<Text>This is a test</Text>
</Description>
I can update this in XML by creatinga SP which accepts a value (clob or text) and make a simple update call like
UPDATE table_name
SET hotel_xml = UPDATEXML (hotel_xml, Description[@Name=''Sales Message'']/Text/text()', 'This is a Test')
WHERE id = 123;
Hopwever when I have HTML tags in my parameter value, my update fails. For example java pp passes me a string
This is a bold &lt;B&gt;Test&lt;/B&gt;
(without encoding it is "This is a Bold <B>Test</B>"
When I run this
UPDATE table_name
SET hotel_xml = UPDATEXML (hotel_xml, Description[@Name=''Sales Message'']/Text/text()', 'This is a bold &lt;B&gt;Test&lt;/B&gt;')
WHERE id = 123;
It thinks, I am passing a substitution variable (think &lt and &gt as sub variables) and the procedure fails.
How do I handle HTML encoded charcters in Oarcle Pl/SQL? Many of my SPs has to accept XML as clob that may contain HTML encoding. Java always encodes HTML tags in an XML so I have to pass the CLOB(xml) to a SP as it is

Answer 1

When this type of encoding is there in my XML or input variable, PL/SQL thinks
its a substitution variable and tries to replace it by prompting replacement. I think »substitution variables« is the wrong phrase for this. Probably you mean »entity names«, and all that happens is that special characters are converted to »entity names« to ensure valid xml after the update:
SQL> with table_name as (
select xmltype('<Description Name="Sales Message">
                   <Text>This is a test</Text>
                 </Description>') hotel_xml from dual)
select updatexml (hotel_xml,
                  'Description[@Name="Sales Message"]/Text/text()',
                  'This is a bold <B>Test</B>'
                 ) hotel_xml
  from table_name
HOTEL_XML                                                                                             
<Description Name="Sales Message"><Text>This is a bold &amp;lt;B&amp;gt;Test&amp;lt;/B&amp;gt;</Text></Description> Do you expect your result to look like
<Description Name="Sales Message">
  <Text>This is a bold <B>Test</B></Text>
</Description>??