Special characters in _XMLUpdateField

[FTPMonster]

I have a weird issue going on with _XMLUpdateField. I'm trying to update a field with a very specific regex, but it keeps adding & everywhere I want just a &. Here's the specifics of what I've tried so far:

This:

"(?" & chr(38) & "<=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})"

results in this:

(?&amp;lt;=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})

This one:

"(?&lt;=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})"

results in:

(?&amp;lt;=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})

And this one:

"(?&&lt;=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})"

results in:

(?&amp;&amp;lt;=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})

All of these are the end bits of

_XMLUpdateField("//TransactionDate/RegexForYear","(?&&lt;=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})")

this example being the last attempt.

It does find the field correctly, and non-special character fields update without issue. Is there something I'm missing?

[jdelaney]

If you want valid html/xml, you need to encode certain chars (&,>,<)...when you return the actual values from the DOM objects, they will be converted back.

Give me a small reproducer, and I'll see if i can help.

$sXMLBeginWrap = '<?xml version="1.0"?><items>'
$sXML = '<img><a>&amp;SomeValue</a></img>'
$sXMLEndWrap = "</items>"
$oXML = ObjCreate("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
$oXML.loadxml($sXMLBeginWrap & $sXML & $sXMLEndWrap)
ConsoleWrite($oXML.xml)
$oImgCol = $oXML.SelectNodes("//img")
For $oItem In $oImgCol
ConsoleWrite($oItem.SelectSingleNode("./a").text & @CRLF)
Next

output is converted back the th &:

&SomeValue

So you can do the regexp search against teh .text of the node

If you add the .text with the regexp, it will auto convert to be valid values (the &[lt|gt|etc]; codes )...so just add it straight in as the <,>,&

Full demonstration:

$sXMLBeginWrap = '<?xml version="1.0"?><items>'
$sXML = '<img><a>&amp;SomeValue</a></img>'
$sXMLEndWrap = "</items>"

$test1 = "(?" & chr(38) & "<=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})"
$oXML = ObjCreate("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
$oXML.loadxml($sXMLBeginWrap & $sXML & $sXMLEndWrap)
ConsoleWrite($oXML.xml)
$oImgCol = $oXML.SelectNodes("//img")
For $oItem In $oImgCol
 ConsoleWrite("original value: " & $oItem.SelectSingleNode("./a").text & @CRLF)
 ConsoleWrite("update to $test1= " & $test1 & @CRLF )
 $oItem.SelectSingleNode("./a").text = $test1
 ConsoleWrite("$oItem.SelectSingleNode('./a').text= " & $oItem.SelectSingleNode("./a").text & @CRLF )
 ConsoleWrite("$oItem.SelectSingleNode('./a').outerxml= " & $oItem.SelectSingleNode("./a").xml & @CRLF )
Next

output:

original value: &SomeValue

update to $test1= (?&<=^s*d+s+w+s+w+s+)([0-9]{4})

$oItem.SelectSingleNode('./a').text= (?&<=^s*d+s+w+s+w+s+)([0-9]{4})

$oItem.SelectSingleNode('./a').outerxml= <a>(?&amp;&lt;=^s*d+s+w+s+w+s+)([0-9]{4})</a>

Edited April 19, 2013 by jdelaney

[FTPMonster]

First off, thank you SO MUCH for the quick reply. Bosses are breathing down my neck on this one.

What I need it to say is specifically

(?<=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})

Now, with your help, here's the code I have:

$XMLImportFile = _XMLFileOpen('c:\FTPMonster\data\sourcefile.xml', 'xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"')
$id3 = _XMLGetValue ("//TransactionDate/RegexForYear")
if $id3[1]<>"(?&lt;=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})" then

$sXMLBeginWrap = '<?xml version="1.0"?><items>'
$test1 = "<img><a>(?&lt;=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})</a></img>"
$sXMLEndWrap = "</items>"

$oXML = ObjCreate("Microsoft.XMLDOM")
$oXML.loadxml($sXMLBeginWrap & $test1 & $sXMLEndWrap)
$oImgCol = $oXML.SelectNodes("//img")
For $oItem In $oImgCol
_XMLUpdateField("//TransactionDate/RegexForYear",$oItem.SelectSingleNode("./a").text)
Next
endif

Now the result is

<RegexForYear>(?lt;=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})</RegexForYear>

Note how it stripped the & from before "lt". I tested with both .text and .xml versions of $oItem.SelectSingleNode("./a") to no avail.

Edited April 19, 2013 by FTPMonster

[jdelaney]

haha, I just provided my xml as examples...don't actually load it in, or it will override your xml...just meant to demonstrate the diff between viewing the data through xml vs node.text

The _XMLGetValue should (probably) return the .text, but you will need to jump into the function to verify...if it returns .text, then it will return &lt; as <

please provide the name of the udf you are using, i'm unfamiliar with those function calls (_XMLUpdateField)

This should work (if _XMLGetValue returns the text of the node):

$id3 = _XMLGetValue ("//TransactionDate/RegexForYear")
if $id3[1]<>"(?<=^\s*\d+\s+\w+\s+\w+\s+)([0-9]{4})" then
ConsoleWrite("success: " & $id3[1] & @CRLF)
Else
ConsoleWrite("failure: " & $id3[1] & @CRLF)
endif

send back the output if not

also, send copy the node directly out of your xml...maybe your xml is missing the "&" on &lt; (which means your xml data needs to be modified)

example: <RegexForYear>blahblablbah</RegexForYear>

Edited April 19, 2013 by jdelaney

[FTPMonster]

I'll test this right now, but in the meantime the UDF is <_XMLDomWrapper.au3>.

[FTPMonster]

It worked!

The interesting thing is, it always goes in to the "success" loop, even if it's exactly the same as what I want to change it to, because of the &lt; to < conversion BS. IMO, that's acceptable behavior.

It is working, and being deployed into production right now.