What's wrong with my AJAX process and '&'

Question

On the page where I create a new record, in my branch I set P10_ID with the newly created primary key and then page 10 loads.
I have and onload call in the header of page 10 - onload="getValues(document.getElementById('P10_ID'));"
I want to set my page 0 items, which works, except if I use an ampersand character in one of my fields. I'm having a hard time understanding why...what's so special about the ampersand? I've tried converting to a hex and ascii value but my page 0 items will not set. I get a javascript error that reads: '0' is null or not an object. When I spell out 'and' instead of using the ampersand character, my page 0 items ARE set correctly.
Here is the code...
My getValues function is:
function getValues(pValue) {
  var xml = null;
  var get = new htmldb_Get(null,$v('pFlowId'),'APPLICATION_PROCESS=Set_Page_Zero',0);
  get.add('AI_PRIMARYID',pValue.value);
  ret = get.get('XML');
  if(ret) {
    var lName = ret.getElementsByTagName("LASTNAME");
    if(lName) {
      var last = document.getElementById("P0_LASTNAME");
      last.value = lName[0].getAttribute("VALUE");
    var fName = ret.getElementsByTagName("FIRSTNAME");
    if(fName) {
      var first = document.getElementById("P0_FIRSTNAME");
      first.value = fName[0].getAttribute("VALUE");
  get = null;
My application process is:
DECLARE
  vFIRSTNAME varchar2(100);
  vLASTNAME varchar2(100);
BEGIN
  owa_util.mime_header('text/xml',FALSE);
  htp.p('Cache-Control: no-cache');
  htp.p('Pragma: no-cache');
  owa_util.http_header_close;
  htp.prn('<DATA>');
    select firstname, lastname into vFIRSTNAME, vLASTNAME from addresses where pk_id = :AI_PRIMARYID;
  htp.prn('<FIRSTNAME VALUE="' || vFIRSTNAME || '"></FIRSTNAME>');
  htp.prn('<LASTNAME VALUE="' || vLASTNAME || '"></LASTNAME>');
EXCEPTION WHEN OTHERS THEN
    htp.prn('<FIRSTNAME VALUE="No records exist"></FIRSTNAME>');
    htp.prn('<LASTNAME VALUE="No records exist"></LASTNAME>');
END;I can't copy and paste so hopefully I haven't made any errors while retyping.
Any idea what the problem is and how to fix it?
Thank you,
Tammy

Answer 1

Hi,
Thanks for that - I'm not sure how I find the time either!!
Firstly, I would replace &amp; with a silly character that is not likely to appear in the text - something like ^ perhaps.
So, in the process:
select REPLACE(firstname,'&','^'), REPLACE(lastname,'&','^') into vFIRSTNAME, vLASTNAME from addresses where pk_id = :AI_PRIMARYID;then in the javascript:
last.value = lName[0].getAttribute("VALUE").replace("^","&");It is possible that this may have to be:
last.value = lName[0].getAttribute("VALUE").replace("^","& amp;");(there's no space between the &amp; and amp; - I've had to add that in for the post!)
Andy
Edited by: ATD on 11-Nov-2009 17:49