Special characters in eConnect XML documents

If your XML data contains one or more special characters, you must add a CDATA format tag to your data element. The following table lists the special characters that require the use of a CDATA tag.

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Special character

Special meaning

Entity encoding

<

Begins a tag

&lt;

>

Ends a tag

&gt;

Quotation mark

&quot;

Apostrophe

&apos;

&

Ampersand

&amp;


The MSXML parser requires a CDATA format tag when you use one of these characters. The following example demonstrates the use of a CDATA format tag:

<VENDNAME>
	<![CDATA[Consolidated Telephone & Telegraph]]>
</VENDNAME>

You can also use a CDATA tag to remove data from a field. To clear data from a field, create an eConnect XML document that updates the targeted record. Use a CDATA tag that contains a blank space to populate the eConnect element that represents the field. The following example uses a CDATA tag to clear the Short Name field of a customer. Notice how the CDATA tag contains a single blank space.

<eConnect xmlns:dt="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:datatypes">
	<RMCustomerMasterType>
		<eConnectProcessInfo>
		 
<eConnectProcsRunFirst>TRUE</eConnectProcsRunFirst> 
		</eConnectProcessInfo>
		<taUpdateCreateCustomerRcd>
			<CUSTNMBR>AARONFIT0001</CUSTNMBR> 
			<SHRTNAME>
				<![CDATA[ ]]> 
			</SHRTNAME>
			<UpdateIfExists>1</UpdateIfExists> 
		</taUpdateCreateCustomerRcd>
	</RMCustomerMasterType>
</eConnect>


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