Using XML_Query in JAVA

Question

I'm using the OracleXMLQuery class to retrieve a CLOB from an Oracle table that was populated from an APEX Rich Text Field page. The XML file that is generated is fine except that the CLOB column has the angle brackets for the STRONG tag translated into XML characters and all the other formatting tags (em, for example) stripped out. Is there any way around this? Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi,
Is there any way around this?It's expected behaviour.
In text or attribute nodes, characters such as <, >, & or " must be escaped in order to produce a valid XML content.
How are you going to use the field once you have it in the XML?
If you want to extract it later into a string variable, then any XML parser should be able to translate back characters to their unescaped forms.
See below examples for alternatives :
- constructing an XMLType with mixed content
- using a CDATA section
{code}
SQL> create table test_xml (
2 id number,
3 text_field clob
4 )
5 ;
Table created
SQL> insert into test_xml (id, text_field)
2 values(1, 'This is a <strong>formatted text</strong>.
3 Another line with <em>emphasized text</em>.')
4 ;
1 row inserted
SQL> SELECT DBMS_XMLQUERY.getXML(
2 'select id,
3 xmltype(''<t>''||text_field||''</t>'') text_field
4 from test_xml where id = 1'
5 ) as result
6 FROM dual;
RESULT
<?xml version = '1.0'?>
<ROWSET>
<ROW num="1">
<ID>1</ID>
<TEXT_FIELD>
<t>This is a <strong>formatted text</strong>.
Another line with <em>emphasized text</em>.</t>
</TEXT_FIELD>
</ROW>
</ROWSET>
SQL> SELECT DBMS_XMLQUERY.getXML(
2 'select id,
3 xmlcdata(text_field) text_field
4 from test_xml where id = 1'
5 ) as result
6 FROM dual;
RESULT
<?xml version = '1.0'?>
<ROWSET>
<ROW num="1">
<ID>1</ID>
<TEXT_FIELD>
<![CDATA[This is a <strong>formatted text</strong>.
         Another line with <em>emphasized text</em>.]]>
</TEXT_FIELD>
</ROW>
</ROWSET>
{code}