URL and the ampersand

Question

Using XSLT and XPath 1.0, I have a string I want to escape for use on a URL, for example:

<description>one word &amp; another</description>

So, the text() of the description element should get URL escaped.

How would I do this?

Using C# (XslCompiledTransform) the code would be:

string a = Server.UrlEncode("one word & another");

And would produce:

one+word+%26+another

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Matt.

Answer 1

In XML (and therefore XSL) you need to escape the &, > and < using

&
<
>

Answer 2

The fragment <description>one word & another</description> resembles XML, but the naked ampersand is illegal. XSL requires legal XML.

One way to make it legal without substituting & is to make the text into a CDATA section:

<description><![CDATA[one word & another]]></description>

Answer 3

There's nothing built in to do this, but rather than reinvent the wheel there are style sheets already out there e.g.:

http://skew.org/xml/stylesheets/url-encode/

The transforms are straightforward but (hopefully) someone else will have done the debugging for you...

Answer 4

Is it possible for you to use XSLT 2.0? I only mention it because there is a nifty URL encoding function which would sort out all your problems..

<xsl:value-of select="url:encode('This is URL encoded')" />