Quiz App - What is the Best Way to Represent Data?

Question

I'm creating a quiz app, kind of like flash cards.
The text for the questions and answers might contain HTML code, double and single quotes, etc..
The text for a question or answer might also extend across multiple lines, with some lines indented.
Should I store the question and answer text in an XML file, or in text files?
I ask because I know sometimes when you store data in XML files you have to jump through hoops to have Flex not mess up the data if it contains <, >, ", ', and lots of whitespace.
If I store the data in an XML file, I guess I need to escape < > " ' and unescape after reading in the data?

Answer 1

If I enter this text and send it using JSON to PHP:
What does this code do?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml">
  <mx:Script>
    <![CDATA[
      private function testFunc(testArg:String):int{
        var myVar:String = "#000000";
        var myVar2:int = 0xFFFFFF;
        return 1;
    ]]>
  </mx:Script>
</mx:Application>
This is the raw, escaped data received by my PHP script:
%7B%22questionData%22%3A%7B%22answerDescription%22%3A%22test%20question%20description%22%2 C%22questionAnswers%22%3A%5B%7B%22answer%22%3A%22test%20answer1%22%2C%22correct%22%3A1%7D% 2C%7B%22answer%22%3A%22test%20answer2%22%2C%22correct%22%3A0%7D%5D%2C%22questionMetadata%2 2%3A%5B%7B%22metadata%22%3A%22test%22%7D%5D%2C%22questionText%22%3A%22What%20does%20this%2 0code%20do%3F%5Cr%5Cr%3C%3Fxml%20version%3D%5C%221.0%5C%22%20encoding%3D%5C%22utf-8%5C%22% 3F%3E%5Cr%3Cmx%3AApplication%20xmlns%3Amx%3D%5C%22http%3A//www.adobe.com/2006/mxml%5C%22%3 E%5Cr%20%20%3Cmx%3AScript%3E%5Cr%20%20%20%20%3C%21%5BCDATA%5B%5Cr%20%20%20%20%20%20private %20function%20testFunc%28testArg%3AString%29%3Aint%7B%5Cr%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20myV ar%3AString%20%3D%20%5C%22%23000000%5C%22%3B%5Cr%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20var%20myVar2%3Aint %20%3D%200xFFFFFF%3B%5Cr%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20return%201%3B%5Cr%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%5Cr %20%20%20%20%5D%5D%3E%5Cr%20%20%3C/mx%3AScript%3E%5Cr%3C/mx%3AApplication%3E%22%2C%22quest ionType%22%3A%22Multiple%20Choice%22%7D%7D
And this is the data after urldecode(), str_replace(), and utf8_encode():
{"questionData":{"answerDescription":"test question description","questionAnswers":[{"answer":"test answer1","correct":1},{"answer":"test answer2","correct":0}],"questionMetadata":[{"metadata":"test"}],"questionText":"What does this code do?rr<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>r<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml">r  <mx:Script>r    <![CDATA[r      private function testFunc(testArg:String):int{r        var myVar:String = "#000000";r        var myVar2:int = 0xFFFFFF;r        return 1;r      }r    ]]>r  </mx:Script>r</mx:Application>","questionType":"Multiple Choice"}}
My PHP script is not able to parse this and get data from these objects:
$questionData = $dataRaw["questionData"];
$questionType = $dataRaw["questionData"]["questionType"];
$questionText = $dataRaw["questionData"]["questionText"];
The actual problem is that $questionData does not contain anything.
However, if I enter this text and send it using JSON to PHP:
What does this code do?
&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;utf-8&quot;?&gt;&lt;mx:Application xmlns:mx=&quot;http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"><mx:Script><![CDATA[private function testFunc(testArg:String):int{var myVar:String = &quot;#000000&quot;;var myVar2:int = 0xFFFFFF;return 1;}]]&gt;&lt;/mx:Script&gt;&lt;/mx:Application&gt;
This is the raw, escaped data received by my PHP script:
%7B%22questionData%22%3A%7B%22answerDescription%22%3A%22test%20question%20description%22%2 C%22questionAnswers%22%3A%5B%7B%22answer%22%3A%22test%20answer1%22%2C%22correct%22%3A1%7D% 2C%7B%22answer%22%3A%22test%20answer2%22%2C%22correct%22%3A0%7D%5D%2C%22questionMetadata%2 2%3A%5B%7B%22metadata%22%3A%22test%22%7D%5D%2C%22questionText%22%3A%22What%20does%20this%2 0code%20do%3F%5Cr%5Cr%26lt%3B%3Fxml%20version%3D%26quot%3B1.0%26quot%3B%20encoding%3D%26qu ot%3Butf-8%26quot%3B%3F%26gt%3B%26lt%3Bmx%3AApplication%20xmlns%3Amx%3D%26quot%3Bhttp%3A// www.adobe.com/2006/mxml%26quot%3B%26gt%3B%26lt%3Bmx%3AScript%26gt%3B%26lt%3B%21%5BCDATA%5B private%20function%20testFunc%28testArg%3AString%29%3Aint%7Bvar%20myVar%3AString%20%3D%20% 26quot%3B%23000000%26quot%3B%3Bvar%20myVar2%3Aint%20%3D%200xFFFFFF%3Breturn%201%3B%7D%5D%5 D%26gt%3B%26lt%3B/mx%3AScript%26gt%3B%26lt%3B/mx%3AApplication%26gt%3B%22%2C%22questionTyp e%22%3A%22Multiple%20Choice%22%7D%7D
And this is the data after urldecode(), str_replace(), and utf8_encode():
{"questionData":{"answerDescription":"test question description","questionAnswers":[{"answer":"test answer1","correct":1},{"answer":"test answer2","correct":0}],"questionMetadata":[{"metadata":"test"}],"questionText":"What does this code do?rr&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;utf-8&quot;?&gt;&lt;mx:Application xmlns:mx=&quot;http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"><mx:Script><![CDATA[private function testFunc(testArg:String):int{var myVar:String = &quot;#000000&quot;;var myVar2:int = 0xFFFFFF;return 1;}]]&gt;&lt;/mx:Script&gt;&lt;/mx:Application&gt;","questionType":"Multiple Choice"}}
And my PHP script processes the data successfully. In this case $questionData correctly contains the data.
I've diffed the raw data and JSON data received in my PHP script, and the &quot; and &lt; and &gt; are there, but if I do not escape them manually as we have seen it does not work.
On the Flex side this is how I process the data:
private function saveQuestion(saveOrUpdate:String):void{
  var questionObj:Object = {    questionData: {
      questionType: quesType.selectedItem,
      questionText: questionTxt.text,
      answerDescription: answerDescTxt.text,
      questionAnswers: getAnswers(),
      questionMetadata: getMetadata()
  var requestSend:Object = new Object();
  var dataString:String = JSON.encode(questionObj);
  dataString = escape(dataString);
  requestSend.questionDataString = dataString;
  requestSend.addQuestion =
"true";  addQuestionRequest.send(requestSend);