Using XML as plain text in TextFilter

Question

I have an application with an XML tag:
<mx:XML id="textXML1">
<root><c1>goodbye</c1></root>
</mx:XML>
I then have a string variable which I set equal to that XML:
var t:String = textXML1;
I then set up a TextFlow by the following line of code:
textFlow = TextFilter.importToFlow(t,
TextFilter.PLAIN_TEXT_FORMAT);
However, I then do a trace of the text value in the TextFlow:
trace("textFlow's text: " + TextUtil.extractText(textFlow));
The resultant dump is:
textFlow's text: <root>
<c1>goodby
<c1>goodbye
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Yes, the XML.toString() method is called. This means that t
is the result of textXML1.toString(), which, on complex XML,
produces a string of the entire XML object, tags and all. If I do a
trace on t, the output is:
<root>
<c1>goodbye</c1>
</root>
That is expected. That also means that the value of "t" is no
longer XML, just a string that looks like XML.
What is unexpected is the malformed "xml" string produced
when it's been handled by the TLF. If you note from my first post,
the result of
TextUtil.extractText(textFlow) is not the entire "xml"
string, but rather a malformed version of it. I'm assuming this is
a bug in either
TextFilter.importToFlow() or
TextUtil.extractText(), but, since there are no exposed
variables/properties on the TextFlow's text (if it has such a
variable at all), I have no way of knowing where this is breaking
down.