NAME

XML::DoubleEncodedEntities - unbreak XML with doubly-encoded entities

DESCRIPTION

Occasionally, XML files escape into the wild with their entities encoded twice so instead of this:

    <chocolate>Green &amp; Blacks</chocolate>

you get:

    &lt;chocolate&gt;Green &amp;amp; Blacks&lt;/chocolate&gt;

A real-world example of this problem can be seen in this failing test for a module which queries an online XML datasource:

    http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.cpan.testers/2007/02/msg414642.html

(search for the text 'Arcturus' in that page).

This module tries to fix that.

SYNOPSIS

    use XML::DoubleEncodedEntities;
    
    my $xmlfile = XML::DoubleEncodedEntities::decode($xmlfile);

Functions

decode

This function is not exported, but can be if you wish. It takes one scalar parameter and returns a corresponding scalar, decoded if necessary.

The parameter is assumed to be a string. If its first non-whitespace characters are "<", or if it contains the sequence "&amp;" the string is assumed to be a doubly-encoded XML document, in which case the following entities, if present, are decoded: & < > " '

No other parameters are decoded. After all, if the input document has been *doubly* encoded then something like "æ", which should be the entity "æ" will be represented by the character sequence "&aelig;". Once the "&" has been corrected by this module, you'll be able to decode the resulting "æ" in the normal way.

BUGS and FEEDBACK

I welcome feedback about my code, including constructive criticism. Bug reports should be made using <http://rt.cpan.org/> or by email, and should include the smallest possible chunk of code, along with any necessary data, which demonstrates the bug. Ideally, this will be in the form of a file which I can drop in to the module's test suite. Ideally such files will work in perl 5.004.

If you are feeling particularly generous you can encourage me in my open source endeavours by buying me something from my wishlist: <http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david/wishlist/>

AUTHOR

David Cantrell <david@cantrell.org.uk>

COPYRIGHT and LICENCE

This module is free-as-in-speech software, and may be used, distributed, and modified under the same terms as Perl itself.

CONSPIRACY

This module is also free-as-in-mason software.