XML Control

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The XML control can be used to both parse and create XML documents.

Syntax

XML

Remarks

The XML control can operate as either a parser or writer of XML.

Parsing XML

The XML control parses XML documents and verifies that they are well formed. The results are provided through a set of events complying with the SAX2 specification.

In addition, the document structure may be queried through an XPath mechanism that supports a subset of the XPath specification.

The parser is optimized for read applications, with a very fast engine that builds internal Document Object Model (DOM) structures with close to zero heap allocations. Additionally, BuildDOM can be set to False, which reduces the overhead of creating the DOM and offers a fast forward-only parsing implementation that fires events to provide the parsed data.

When parsing a document, events will fire to provide information about the parsed data. After Parse returns, the document may be navigated by setting XPath if BuildDOM is True (default). If BuildDOM is False, parsed data are accessible only through the events.

Events are fired only when qualifying conditions (e.g., the beginning of a new element) are met. In the meantime, text will be buffered internally. The following events will fire during parsing:

If BuildDOM is True (default), XPath may be set after this method returns. XPath implements a subset of the XML XPath specification, allowing you to point to specific elements in the XML documents.

The path is a series of one or more element accessors separated by '/'. The path can be absolute (starting with '/') or relative to the current XPath location.

The following are possible values for an element accessor:

'name'A particular element name
name[i]The i-th subelement of the current element with the given name
[i]The i-th subelement of the current element
[last()]The last subelement of the current element
[last()-i]The subelement located at the last location minus i in the current element
name[@attrname="attrvalue"]The subelement containing a particular value for a given attribute (supports single AND double quotes)
..The parent of the current element
When XPath is set to a valid path, XElement points to the name of the element, with XParent, XNamespace, XPrefix, XChildName, XChildNamespace, XChildPrefix, XChildXText, and XText providing other properties of the element. The attributes of the current element are provided in the AttrName, AttrNamespace, AttrPrefix, and AttrValue properties.

BuildDOM must be set to True before parsing the document for the XPath functionality to be available.

Example. Setting XPath:

Document rootXML.XPath = "/"
Specific ElementXML.XPath = "/root/SubElement1/SubElement2/"
i-th ChildXML.XPath = "/root/SubElement1[i]"

Input Properties

The control will determine the source of the input based on which properties are set.

The order in which the input properties are checked is as follows:

When a valid source is found, the search stops.

If parsing multiple documents, call Reset between documents to reset the parser.

An additional "relaxed" mode allows for lexical parsing of non-XML documents (e.g., HTML). This is enabled by setting Validate to False. In this case, events will be fired as elements, entities, and so on are encountered, but the structure of the document will not be checked for "well-formedness", and the internal DOM structure will not be built.

Writing XML

To use the control, first decide whether or not to write to file, or to OutputData.

Output Properties

The control will determine the destination of the output based on which properties are set.

The order in which the output properties are checked is as follows:

  • OutputFile
  • OutputData: The output data are written to this property if no other destination is specified.

To begin writing the XML document, first optionally set XMLDeclaration. If this is not set, the control will use a default XML declaration at the beginning of the document.

Next, begin adding elements to your document. Calling StartElement will open an element with the specified name. To create a nested structure, continue calling StartElement to open more child elements. To write a value within an element, call PutString. To close the element that was last opened, call EndElement. Each time EndElement is called, the element at the current level is closed. Alternatively, calling PutElement will write the element specified with the value specified and will also close the element.

To write an attribute of the current element, after calling StartElement call PutAttr. Call PutAttr multiple times to add multiple attributes.

Writing comments or CDATA can be done at any time with the PutComment and PutCData methods.

To close your XML document, call Save. You can call Save from any location, and it will close any remaining open elements automatically.

Property List


The following is the full list of the properties of the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

BuildDOMWhen set to True, this property creates an internal object model of the XML document.
InputDataThis property specifies the XML data to parse.
InputFileThis property specifies the file to process.
NamespaceCountThe number of records in the Namespace arrays.
NamespacePrefixThis property contains the Prefix for the Namespace .
NamespaceURIThis property contains the namespace URI associated with the corresponding Prefix .
OutputDataThe output XML after processing.
OutputFileThis property includes the path to a local file where the output will be written.
OverwriteThis property indicates whether or not the control should overwrite files.
ValidateThis property controls whether documents are validated during parsing.
AttrCountThe number of records in the Attr arrays.
AttrNameThe Name provides the local name (without prefix) of the attribute.
AttrNamespaceThis property contains the attribute namespace.
AttrPrefixThis property contains the attribute prefix (if any).
AttrValueThis property contains the attribute value.
XChildCountThe number of records in the XChild arrays.
XChildNameThe Name property provides the local name (without a prefix) of the element.
XChildNamespaceThis property contains the namespace of the element.
XChildPrefixThis property contains the prefix of the element (if any).
XChildXTextThis property contains the inner text of the element.
XCommentCountThe number of records in the XComment arrays.
XCommentTextThis property holds the comment text.
XElementThis property includes the name of the current element.
XMLDeclarationEncodingThis property specifies the XML encoding to use.
XMLDeclarationStandaloneThis property indicates whether the standalone attribute is present in the declaration with a value of True.
XMLDeclarationVersionThis property specifies the XML version.
XNamespaceThis property includes the namespace of the current element.
XParentThis property includes the parent of the current element.
XPathThis property provides a way to point to a specific element in the document.
XPrefixThis property includes the prefix of the current element.
XSubTreeThis property includes a snapshot of the current element in the document.
XTextThis property includes the text of the current element.

Method List


The following is the full list of the methods of the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

ConfigSets or retrieves a configuration setting.
EndElementThis method writes the closing tag of an open XML element.
FlushThis method flushes the parser and checks its end state.
GetAttrThis method returns the value of the specified attribute.
HasXPathThis method determines whether a specific element exists in the document.
LoadDOMThis method loads the document object model (DOM) from a file.
LoadSchemaThis method loads the XML schema.
ParseThis method parses the specified XML data.
PutAttrThis method writes an XML attribute.
PutCDataThis method writes an XML CDATA block.
PutCommentThis method writes an XML comment block.
PutElementThis method writes a simple XML element with a value.
PutRawThis method writes a raw XML fragment.
PutStringThis method writes text inside an XML element.
RemoveAttrThis method removes an attribute.
RemoveChildrenThis method removes the children of the element as the specified XPath.
RemoveElementThis method removes the element as the specified XPath.
ResetThis method resets the parser.
SaveThis method closes the control writing stream.
SaveDOMThis method saves the DOM to a file.
StartElementThis method writes the opening tag of an XML element.
TryXPathThis method navigates to the specified XPath if it exists.

Event List


The following is the full list of the events fired by the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

CharactersThis event is fired for plaintext segments of the input stream.
CommentThis event is fired when a comment section is encountered.
EndElementThis event is fired when an end-element tag is encountered.
EndPrefixMappingThis event is fired when leaving the scope of a namespace declaration.
ErrorFired when information is available about errors during data delivery.
EvalEntityThis event is fired every time an entity needs to be evaluated.
IgnorableWhitespaceThis event is fired when a section of ignorable whitespace is encountered.
MetaThis event fires when a meta section is encountered.
PIThis event is fired when a processing instruction section is encountered.
SpecialSectionThis event is fired when a special section is encountered.
StartElementThis event is fired when a begin-element tag is encountered in the document.
StartPrefixMappingThis event is fired when entering the scope of a namespace declaration.
XMLThis event is fired as XML is written.

Config Settings


The following is a list of config settings for the control with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.

CacheContentIf true, the original XML is saved in a buffer.
CharsetSpecifies the charset used when encoding data.
EOLThe characters to use for separating lines.
ErrorOnEmptyAttrIf true, passing an invalid attribute to the Attr method will throw an exception.
ExtraNameCharsExtra characters for the parser to consider as name characters.
ExtraSpaceCharsExtra characters for the parser to consider as white space.
FlushOnEOLIf set, the parser flushes its text buffer after every line of text.
IgnoreBadAttributePrefixesIf true, bad (unknown) attribute prefixes are ignored.
IgnoreBadElementPrefixesIf true, bad (unknown) element prefixes are ignored.
IncludeElementPrefixWhether to include the prefix in the element name.
IncludeXMLDeclarationWhether to include the XML declaration when writing XML.
IndentThe characters to use for each indentation level.
OffsetCurrent offset of the document being parsed.
PreserveWhitespaceIf true, leading and trailing whitespace in element text is preserved.
QuoteCharQuote character to use for attribute values.
StringProcessingOptionsDefines options to use when processing string values.
CodePageThe system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations.
MaskSensitiveDataWhether sensitive data is masked in log messages.
UseInternalSecurityAPIWhether or not to use the system security libraries or an internal implementation.

BuildDOM Property (XML Control)

When set to True, this property creates an internal object model of the XML document.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.BuildDOM[=boolean]

Default Value

True

Remarks

Set BuildDOM to True when you need to browse the current document through XPath.

Validate is automatically set to True when BuildDOM is set to True.

Data Type

Boolean

InputData Property (XML Control)

This property specifies the XML data to parse.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.InputData[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property specifies the XML to be processed. Set this property before calling Parse.

This property may be set to a complete XML document or to partial data. When setting partial data, call Parse after each chunk of data is set. For instance:

//Parse the following in chunks: <test>1</test> xml.InputData = "<test>" xml.Parse(); xml.InputData = "1<test>" xml.Parse();

Input Properties

The control will determine the source of the input based on which properties are set.

The order in which the input properties are checked is as follows:

When a valid source is found, the search stops.

Data Type

String

InputFile Property (XML Control)

This property specifies the file to process.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.InputFile[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property specifies the file to be processed. Set this property to the full or relative path to the file that will be processed.

After setting this property, call Parse to parse the document.

Input Properties

The control will determine the source of the input based on which properties are set.

The order in which the input properties are checked is as follows:

When a valid source is found, the search stops.

Data Type

String

NamespaceCount Property (XML Control)

The number of records in the Namespace arrays.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.NamespaceCount[=integer]

Default Value

0

Remarks

This property controls the size of the following arrays:

The array indices start at 0 and end at NamespaceCount - 1.

This property is not available at design time.

Data Type

Integer

NamespacePrefix Property (XML Control)

This property contains the Prefix for the Namespace .

Syntax

xmlcontrol.NamespacePrefix(NamespaceIndex)[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property contains the NamespacePrefix for the Namespace.

The NamespaceIndex parameter specifies the index of the item in the array. The size of the array is controlled by the NamespaceCount property.

This property is not available at design time.

Data Type

String

NamespaceURI Property (XML Control)

This property contains the namespace URI associated with the corresponding Prefix .

Syntax

xmlcontrol.NamespaceURI(NamespaceIndex)[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property contains the namespace URI associated with the corresponding NamespacePrefix. This URL is usually pointing to the XML schema for the namespace.

The NamespaceIndex parameter specifies the index of the item in the array. The size of the array is controlled by the NamespaceCount property.

This property is not available at design time.

Data Type

String

OutputData Property (XML Control)

The output XML after processing.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.OutputData[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property will be populated with the output from the operation if OutputFile is not set.

Data Type

String

OutputFile Property (XML Control)

This property includes the path to a local file where the output will be written.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.OutputFile[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property specifies the file to which the output will be written. This may be set to an absolute or relative path.

Output Properties

The control will determine the destination of the output based on which properties are set.

The order in which the output properties are checked is as follows:

  • OutputFile
  • OutputData: The output data are written to this property if no other destination is specified.

Data Type

String

Overwrite Property (XML Control)

This property indicates whether or not the control should overwrite files.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.Overwrite[=boolean]

Default Value

False

Remarks

This property indicates whether or not the control will overwrite OutputFile. If Overwrite is False, an error will be thrown whenever OutputFile exists before an operation. The default value is False.

Data Type

Boolean

Validate Property (XML Control)

This property controls whether documents are validated during parsing.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.Validate[=boolean]

Default Value

True

Remarks

When (default), the document will be validated during parsing. To disable validation set Validate to . Disabling validation may be useful in cases in which data can still be parsed even if the document is not well formed.

Data Type

Boolean

AttrCount Property (XML Control)

The number of records in the Attr arrays.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.AttrCount[=integer]

Default Value

0

Remarks

This property controls the size of the following arrays:

The array indices start at 0 and end at AttrCount - 1.

This property is not available at design time.

Data Type

Integer

AttrName Property (XML Control)

The Name provides the local name (without prefix) of the attribute.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.AttrName(AttrIndex)

Default Value

""

Remarks

The AttrName provides the local name (without prefix) of the attribute.

The AttrIndex parameter specifies the index of the item in the array. The size of the array is controlled by the AttrCount property.

This property is read-only and not available at design time.

Data Type

String

AttrNamespace Property (XML Control)

This property contains the attribute namespace.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.AttrNamespace(AttrIndex)

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property contains the attribute namespace.

The AttrIndex parameter specifies the index of the item in the array. The size of the array is controlled by the AttrCount property.

This property is read-only and not available at design time.

Data Type

String

AttrPrefix Property (XML Control)

This property contains the attribute prefix (if any).

Syntax

xmlcontrol.AttrPrefix(AttrIndex)

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property contains the attribute prefix (if any). If the attribute does not have a prefix, this property is empty.

The AttrIndex parameter specifies the index of the item in the array. The size of the array is controlled by the AttrCount property.

This property is read-only and not available at design time.

Data Type

String

AttrValue Property (XML Control)

This property contains the attribute value.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.AttrValue(AttrIndex)

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property contains the attribute value.

The AttrIndex parameter specifies the index of the item in the array. The size of the array is controlled by the AttrCount property.

This property is read-only and not available at design time.

Data Type

String

XChildCount Property (XML Control)

The number of records in the XChild arrays.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XChildCount[=integer]

Default Value

0

Remarks

This property controls the size of the following arrays:

The array indices start at 0 and end at XChildCount - 1.

This property is not available at design time.

Data Type

Integer

XChildName Property (XML Control)

The Name property provides the local name (without a prefix) of the element.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XChildName(XChildIndex)

Default Value

""

Remarks

The XChildName property provides the local name (without a prefix) of the element.

The XChildIndex parameter specifies the index of the item in the array. The size of the array is controlled by the XChildCount property.

This property is read-only and not available at design time.

Data Type

String

XChildNamespace Property (XML Control)

This property contains the namespace of the element.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XChildNamespace(XChildIndex)

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property contains the namespace of the element.

The XChildIndex parameter specifies the index of the item in the array. The size of the array is controlled by the XChildCount property.

This property is read-only and not available at design time.

Data Type

String

XChildPrefix Property (XML Control)

This property contains the prefix of the element (if any).

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XChildPrefix(XChildIndex)

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property contains the prefix of the element (if any). If the element does not have a prefix, this property is empty.

The XChildIndex parameter specifies the index of the item in the array. The size of the array is controlled by the XChildCount property.

This property is read-only and not available at design time.

Data Type

String

XChildXText Property (XML Control)

This property contains the inner text of the element.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XChildXText(XChildIndex)

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property contains the inner text of the element.

The XChildIndex parameter specifies the index of the item in the array. The size of the array is controlled by the XChildCount property.

This property is read-only and not available at design time.

Data Type

String

XCommentCount Property (XML Control)

The number of records in the XComment arrays.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XCommentCount[=integer]

Default Value

0

Remarks

This property controls the size of the following arrays:

The array indices start at 0 and end at XCommentCount - 1.

This property is not available at design time.

Data Type

Integer

XCommentText Property (XML Control)

This property holds the comment text.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XCommentText(XCommentIndex)[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

This property holds the comment text.

The XCommentIndex parameter specifies the index of the item in the array. The size of the array is controlled by the XCommentCount property.

This property is not available at design time.

Data Type

String

XElement Property (XML Control)

This property includes the name of the current element.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XElement[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

The current element is specified through the XPath property.

Data Type

String

XMLDeclarationEncoding Property (XML Control)

This property specifies the XML encoding to use.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XMLDeclarationEncoding[=string]

Default Value

"utf-8"

Remarks

This property specifies the XML encoding to use.

This may be set before writing a document. The default value is UTF-8.

This is applicable only when writing XML.

This property is not available at design time.

Data Type

String

XMLDeclarationStandalone Property (XML Control)

This property indicates whether the standalone attribute is present in the declaration with a value of True.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XMLDeclarationStandalone[=boolean]

Default Value

True

Remarks

This property indicates whether the standalone attribute is present in the declaration with a value of True.

This may be set before writing a document. The default value is True.

This is applicable only when writing XML.

This property is not available at design time.

Data Type

Boolean

XMLDeclarationVersion Property (XML Control)

This property specifies the XML version.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XMLDeclarationVersion[=string]

Default Value

"1.0"

Remarks

This property specifies the XML version.

This may be set before writing a document. The default value is 1.0.

This is applicable only when writing XML.

This property is not available at design time.

Data Type

String

XNamespace Property (XML Control)

This property includes the namespace of the current element.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XNamespace[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

The current element is specified through the XPath property.

Data Type

String

XParent Property (XML Control)

This property includes the parent of the current element.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XParent

Default Value

""

Remarks

The current element is specified through the XPath property.

This property is read-only.

Data Type

String

XPath Property (XML Control)

This property provides a way to point to a specific element in the document.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XPath[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

XPath implements a subset of the XML XPath specification, allowing you to point to specific elements in the XML documents.

The path is a series of one or more element accessors separated by '/'. The path can be absolute (starting with '/') or relative to the current XPath location.

The following are possible values for an element accessor:

'name'A particular element name
name[i]The i-th subelement of the current element with the given name
[i]The i-th subelement of the current element
[last()]The last subelement of the current element
[last()-i]The subelement located at the last location minus i in the current element
name[@attrname="attrvalue"]The subelement containing a particular value for a given attribute (supports single AND double quotes)
..The parent of the current element
When XPath is set to a valid path, XElement points to the name of the element, with XParent, XNamespace, XPrefix, XChildName, XChildNamespace, XChildPrefix, XChildXText, and XText providing other properties of the element. The attributes of the current element are provided in the AttrName, AttrNamespace, AttrPrefix, and AttrValue properties.

BuildDOM must be set to True before parsing the document for the XPath functionality to be available.

Example. Setting XPath:

Document rootXML.XPath = "/"
Specific ElementXML.XPath = "/root/SubElement1/SubElement2/"
i-th ChildXML.XPath = "/root/SubElement1[i]"

Data Type

String

XPrefix Property (XML Control)

This property includes the prefix of the current element.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XPrefix[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

The current element is specified through the XPath property.

Data Type

String

XSubTree Property (XML Control)

This property includes a snapshot of the current element in the document.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XSubTree

Default Value

""

Remarks

The current element is specified through the XPath property. For this property to work, you must set the CacheContent to True.

This property is read-only.

Data Type

String

XText Property (XML Control)

This property includes the text of the current element.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.XText[=string]

Default Value

""

Remarks

The current element is specified through the XPath property.

Data Type

String

Config Method (XML Control)

Sets or retrieves a configuration setting.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.Config ConfigurationString

Remarks

Config is a generic method available in every control. It is used to set and retrieve configuration settings for the control.

These settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the control, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.

To set a configuration setting named PROPERTY, you must call Config("PROPERTY=VALUE"), where VALUE is the value of the setting expressed as a string. For boolean values, use the strings "True", "False", "0", "1", "Yes", or "No" (case does not matter).

To read (query) the value of a configuration setting, you must call Config("PROPERTY"). The value will be returned as a string.

EndElement Method (XML Control)

This method writes the closing tag of an open XML element.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.EndElement 

Remarks

This method writes the closing tag of the XML element most recently opened using StartElement.

If no elements are opened, the call fails with an error

Flush Method (XML Control)

This method flushes the parser and checks its end state.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.Flush 

Remarks

When Flush is called, the parser flushes all its buffers, firing events as necessary, and then checks its end state. If Validate is True, the parser verifies that all open elements were closed, returning an error if not.

GetAttr Method (XML Control)

This method returns the value of the specified attribute.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.GetAttr AttrName

Remarks

This method returns the value of the attribute specified by the AttrName parameter.

If the attribute does not exist, an empty string is returned. The behavior when an attribute does not exit is controlled by ErrorOnEmptyAttr.

Please refer to the AttrName, AttrNamespace, AttrPrefix, and AttrValue properties for more information.

HasXPath Method (XML Control)

This method determines whether a specific element exists in the document.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.HasXPath XPath

Remarks

This method determines whether a particular XPath exists within the document. This may be used to check if a path exists before setting it through XPath.

This method returns True if the xpath exists, and False if not.

See XPath for details on the XPath syntax.

LoadDOM Method (XML Control)

This method loads the document object model (DOM) from a file.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.LoadDOM FileName

Remarks

The LoadDOM method loads a DOM structure previously saved by SaveDOM from the file specified in FileName.

Please refer to the SaveDOM method for more information.

LoadSchema Method (XML Control)

This method loads the XML schema.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.LoadSchema Schema

Remarks

This functionality is not yet implemented.

This method loads the schema specified in the Schema parameter. The Schema may be specified as either a string or the path to a file on disk.

The control will validate the input data during parsing to verify whether or not it adheres to the schema.

Parse Method (XML Control)

This method parses the specified XML data.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.Parse 

Remarks

This method parses the specified XML data.

When parsing a document, events will fire to provide information about the parsed data. After Parse returns, the document may be navigated by setting XPath if BuildDOM is True (default). If BuildDOM is False, parsed data are accessible only through the events.

Events are fired only when qualifying conditions (e.g., the beginning of a new element) are met. In the meantime, text will be buffered internally. The following events will fire during parsing:

If BuildDOM is True (default), XPath may be set after this method returns. XPath implements a subset of the XML XPath specification, allowing you to point to specific elements in the XML documents.

The path is a series of one or more element accessors separated by '/'. The path can be absolute (starting with '/') or relative to the current XPath location.

The following are possible values for an element accessor:

'name'A particular element name
name[i]The i-th subelement of the current element with the given name
[i]The i-th subelement of the current element
[last()]The last subelement of the current element
[last()-i]The subelement located at the last location minus i in the current element
name[@attrname="attrvalue"]The subelement containing a particular value for a given attribute (supports single AND double quotes)
..The parent of the current element
When XPath is set to a valid path, XElement points to the name of the element, with XParent, XNamespace, XPrefix, XChildName, XChildNamespace, XChildPrefix, XChildXText, and XText providing other properties of the element. The attributes of the current element are provided in the AttrName, AttrNamespace, AttrPrefix, and AttrValue properties.

BuildDOM must be set to True before parsing the document for the XPath functionality to be available.

Example. Setting XPath:

Document rootXML.XPath = "/"
Specific ElementXML.XPath = "/root/SubElement1/SubElement2/"
i-th ChildXML.XPath = "/root/SubElement1[i]"

Input Properties

The control will determine the source of the input based on which properties are set.

The order in which the input properties are checked is as follows:

When a valid source is found, the search stops.

If parsing multiple documents, call Reset between documents to reset the parser.

PutAttr Method (XML Control)

This method writes an XML attribute.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.PutAttr Name, NamespaceURI, Value

Remarks

This method writes an XML attribute on the currently opened XML element. It must be called right after calling StartElement and before any calls to PutString, PutComment, or PutRaw.

If Name is a local name without a prefix, the control will automatically introduce a new xmlns="NamespaceURI" attribute, if necessary.

If Name is in the form prefix:local, then control will automatically introduce a new xmlns:prefix="NamespaceURI" as necessary.

Certain attribute names will be handled in special ways by this method. If Name is "xmlns" or uses the "xmlns" prefix, the attribute will be interpreted as a namespace declaration, regardless of the value of NamespaceURI. Similarly, any attribute using the "xml" prefix will be interpreted as a special attribute (like "xml:lang") and NamespaceURI will be ignored.

PutCData Method (XML Control)

This method writes an XML CDATA block.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.PutCData Text

Remarks

This methods writes a new XML CDATA block with the specified text inside the current element.

PutComment Method (XML Control)

This method writes an XML comment block.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.PutComment Text

Remarks

This method writes a new XML comment block with the specified text.

PutElement Method (XML Control)

This method writes a simple XML element with a value.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.PutElement Name, NamespaceURI, Value

Remarks

This method writes a simple XML element with no attributes and the specified value between the opening and closing tags.

If Name is a local name without a prefix, the control will automatically introduce a new xmlns="NamespaceURI" attribute, if necessary.

If Name is in the form prefix:local, then control will automatically introduce a new xmlns:prefix="NamespaceURI" as necessary.

When calling PutElement or StartElement, if a NamespaceURI is not specified, an empty namespace will be defined for the element. If a namespace should be associated with the element, a NamespaceURI value must be provided. When creating the XML, the control will determine if the namespace already exists to avoid duplicate definitions of the same namespace. For example, to create this XML:

<book xmlns='urn:loc.gov:books'
      xmlns:isbn='urn:ISBN:0-395-36341-6'>
    <title>Cheaper by the Dozen</title>
    <isbn:number>1568491379</isbn:number>
</book>
Use the following code: xml.StartElement("book", "urn:loc.gov:books"); xml.PutAttr("xmlns:isbn", "", "urn:ISBN:0-395-36341-6"); xml.PutElement("title", "urn:loc.gov:books", "Cheaper by the Dozen"); xml.PutElement("isbn:number", "urn:ISBN:0-395-36341-6", "1568491379"); xmlw.Close(); In this example, the "title" element uses the default namespace "urn:loc.gov:books" and the "number" element uses the "urn:ISBN:0-395-36341-6" namespace as defined for the "isbn" prefix.

PutRaw Method (XML Control)

This method writes a raw XML fragment.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.PutRaw Text

Remarks

This method writes a raw XML fragment to the output, without escaping and without verification. If an XML element opening tag has been written before the raw fragment, the fragment will be written as a child of the current element.

Use of this method should be carefully considered as it can easily lead to malformed XML content.

PutString Method (XML Control)

This method writes text inside an XML element.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.PutString Text

Remarks

This method will XML escape the value provided and write the resulting escaped text between the opening and closing tags of an XML element.

RemoveAttr Method (XML Control)

This method removes an attribute.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.RemoveAttr AttrName

Remarks

This method removes an attribute at the specified XPath

This functionality is not yet implemented.

RemoveChildren Method (XML Control)

This method removes the children of the element as the specified XPath.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.RemoveChildren 

Remarks

This method removes the children of the element specified by XPath.

When called, the control will remove the children of the element from the internal representation of the XML (the DOM). The element itself remains, with no children. This may be used at any time after Parse returns, or from within the EndElement event as a document is parsed to remove sections of a document that will not be needed later. By removing unnecessary elements from the DOM, memory consumption is reduced and overall performance is improved.

Example. RemoveChildren:

Given the XML

<food>
	<fruits>
		<apple>
			<color>red</color>
		</apple>
		<banana>
			<color>yellow</color>
		</banana>
	</fruits>
</food>

This code removes the children of the apple element while leaving the apple element in place.

xml.XPath = "/food/fruits/apple"; xml.RemoveChildren();

The XML stored in the DOM is now:

<food>
	<fruits>
		<apple>
		</apple>
		<banana>
			<color>yellow</color>
		</banana>
	</fruits>
</food>

RemoveElement Method (XML Control)

This method removes the element as the specified XPath.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.RemoveElement 

Remarks

This method removes the element specified by XPath.

When called, the control will remove the element and its children from the internal representation of the XML (the DOM). This may be used at any time after Parse returns, or from within the EndElement event as a document is parsed to remove sections of a document that will not be needed later. By removing unnecessary elements from the DOM, memory consumption is reduced and overall performance is improved.

Example. RemoveElement:

Given the XML

<food>
	<fruits>
		<apple>
			<color>red</color>
		</apple>
		<banana>
			<color>yellow</color>
		</banana>
	</fruits>
</food>

This code removes the apple element and its children.

xml.XPath = "/food/fruits/apple"; xml.RemoveElement();

The XML stored in the DOM is now:

<food>
	<fruits>
		<banana>
			<color>yellow</color>
		</banana>
	</fruits>
</food>

Reset Method (XML Control)

This method resets the parser.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.Reset 

Remarks

When called, the parser flushes all its buffers, firing events as necessary, and then initializes itself to its default state.

Reset must also be used as signal to the parser that the current stream of text has terminated.

Save Method (XML Control)

This method closes the control writing stream.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.Save 

Remarks

This method will close any open XML elements, and then close the OutputFile if necessary.

SaveDOM Method (XML Control)

This method saves the DOM to a file.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.SaveDOM FileName

Remarks

The SaveDOM method saves the current DOM structure to the file specified in FileName. This enables the component to later load the DOM without incurring any parsing overhead.

Please refer to the LoadDOM method for more information.

StartElement Method (XML Control)

This method writes the opening tag of an XML element.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.StartElement Name, NamespaceURI

Remarks

This method writes the opening tag of a new XML element. If an XML element is already opened, then this element is written as a child.

If Name is a local name without a prefix, the control will automatically introduce a new xmlns="NamespaceURI" attribute, if necessary.

If Name is in the form prefix:local, then control will automatically introduce a new xmlns:prefix="NamespaceURI" as necessary.

When calling PutElement or StartElement, if a NamespaceURI is not specified, an empty namespace will be defined for the element. If a namespace should be associated with the element, a NamespaceURI value must be provided. When creating the XML, the control will determine if the namespace already exists to avoid duplicate definitions of the same namespace. For example, to create this XML:

<book xmlns='urn:loc.gov:books'
      xmlns:isbn='urn:ISBN:0-395-36341-6'>
    <title>Cheaper by the Dozen</title>
    <isbn:number>1568491379</isbn:number>
</book>
Use the following code: xml.StartElement("book", "urn:loc.gov:books"); xml.PutAttr("xmlns:isbn", "", "urn:ISBN:0-395-36341-6"); xml.PutElement("title", "urn:loc.gov:books", "Cheaper by the Dozen"); xml.PutElement("isbn:number", "urn:ISBN:0-395-36341-6", "1568491379"); xmlw.Close(); In this example, the "title" element uses the default namespace "urn:loc.gov:books" and the "number" element uses the "urn:ISBN:0-395-36341-6" namespace as defined for the "isbn" prefix.

TryXPath Method (XML Control)

This method navigates to the specified XPath if it exists.

Syntax

xmlcontrol.TryXPath xpath

Remarks

This method will attempt to navigate to the specified XPath parameter if it exists within the document.

If the XPath exists, the XPath property will be updated and this method returns True.

If the XPath does not exist, the XPath property is not updated and this method returns False.

Characters Event (XML Control)

This event is fired for plaintext segments of the input stream.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_Characters(Text As String)

Remarks

The Characters event provides the plaintext content of the XML document (i.e., the text inside the tags). The text is provided through the Text parameter.

The text includes white space as well as end-of-line characters, except for ignorable whitespace, which is fired through the IgnorableWhitespace event.

Comment Event (XML Control)

This event is fired when a comment section is encountered.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_Comment(Text As String)

Remarks

The Comment event is fired whenever a comment section (<!-- ..text... -->) is found in the document.

The full text of the comment is provided by the Text parameter.

EndElement Event (XML Control)

This event is fired when an end-element tag is encountered.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_EndElement(Namespace As String, Element As String, QName As String, IsEmpty As Boolean)

Remarks

The EndElement event is fired when an end-element tag is found in the document.

The element name is provided by the Element parameter.

The IsEmpty parameter is true when the event corresponds to an empty element declaration.

EndPrefixMapping Event (XML Control)

This event is fired when leaving the scope of a namespace declaration.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_EndPrefixMapping(Prefix As String)

Remarks

The StartPrefixMapping event is fired when entering the scope of a namespace declaration.

Error Event (XML Control)

Fired when information is available about errors during data delivery.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_Error(ErrorCode As Integer, Description As String)

Remarks

The Error event is fired in case of exceptional conditions during message processing. Normally the control fails with an error.

The ErrorCode parameter contains an error code, and the Description parameter contains a textual description of the error. For a list of valid error codes and their descriptions, please refer to the Error Codes section.

EvalEntity Event (XML Control)

This event is fired every time an entity needs to be evaluated.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_EvalEntity(Entity As String, Value As String)

Remarks

The Value parameter contains a suggested value for the entity (normally the entity name itself). You may set Value to a value of your choice, which will be later passed into the text stream.

IgnorableWhitespace Event (XML Control)

This event is fired when a section of ignorable whitespace is encountered.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_IgnorableWhitespace(Text As String)

Remarks

The ignorable whitespace section is provided by the Text parameter.

Meta Event (XML Control)

This event fires when a meta section is encountered.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_Meta(Text As String)

Remarks

The Meta event is fired whenever a meta information section (<! ..text... >) is found in the document.

The full text of the meta section is provided by the Text parameter.

PI Event (XML Control)

This event is fired when a processing instruction section is encountered.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_PI(Text As String)

Remarks

The PI event is fired whenever a processing instruction section (<? ..text... ?>) is found in the document.

The full text of the processing instruction is provided by the Text parameter.

SpecialSection Event (XML Control)

This event is fired when a special section is encountered.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_SpecialSection(SectionId As String, Text As String)

Remarks

The SpecialSection event is fired whenever a special section (such as <![ CDATA [ ..text... ]]>) is found in the document.

The full text of the special section is provided by the Text parameter, and the SectionId parameter provides the section identifier (e.g., CDATA).

StartElement Event (XML Control)

This event is fired when a begin-element tag is encountered in the document.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_StartElement(Namespace As String, Element As String, QName As String, IsEmpty As Boolean)

Remarks

The StartElement event is fired when a begin-element tag is found in the document.

The element name is provided through the Element parameter. The attribute names and values (if any) are provided through the AttrName, AttrNamespace, AttrPrefix, and AttrValue properties.

The IsEmpty parameter is True when the event corresponds to an empty element declaration.

StartPrefixMapping Event (XML Control)

This event is fired when entering the scope of a namespace declaration.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_StartPrefixMapping(Prefix As String, URI As String)

Remarks

The EndPrefixMapping event is fired when leaving the scope of a namespace declaration.

XML Event (XML Control)

This event is fired as XML is written.

Syntax

Sub xmlcontrol_XML(Text As String)

Remarks

This event is fired when XML is output. The Text parameter holds the data being written.

This functionality is not yet implemented.

Config Settings (XML Control)

The control accepts one or more of the following configuration settings. Configuration settings are similar in functionality to properties, but they are rarely used. In order to avoid "polluting" the property namespace of the control, access to these internal properties is provided through the Config method.

XML Config Settings

CacheContent:   If true, the original XML is saved in a buffer.

This configuration setting controls whether or not the component retains the entire original XML in a buffer. This is used to retain the original XML as opposed to returning generated XML after parsing. The default value is True.

Charset:   Specifies the charset used when encoding data.

This configuration setting specifies the character set used when encoding data. This value will also be used when creating the XMLDeclaration. The default value is "utf-8".

EOL:   The characters to use for separating lines.

If specified, the control will format the output XML, using the specified characters to separate multiple lines for nested XML elements. The default value is CRLF (Chr$(13) & Chr$(10)) .

This option should be combined with Indent for full effect.

ErrorOnEmptyAttr:   If true, passing an invalid attribute to the Attr method will throw an exception.

If an invalid attribute name is passed into the GetAttr method, the method will return with an empty string if this is set to False; otherwise, an exception is thrown.

ExtraNameChars:   Extra characters for the parser to consider as name characters.

Normally, the parser considers only the following characters as part of an XML identifier: 'A' through 'Z', 'a' through 'z', '0' through '9', and '.', '-', '_', ':'.

If you would like any other characters to be considered as name characters, you may set them as a string into this property.

ExtraSpaceChars:   Extra characters for the parser to consider as white space.

Normally, the parser considers only the following characters as white space: ' ' (space), '\t' (tab), '\ n' (newline), '\r' (carriage return), '\f' (form feed), and '\v' (vertical tab).

If you would like any other characters to be considered as white space, you may set them as a string into this property.

FlushOnEOL:   If set, the parser flushes its text buffer after every line of text.

The FlushOnEOL property controls whether or not Characters events are fired for every line of the input text stream. Normally, lines are buffered internally and delivered in batches, but if the FlushOnEOL flag is set, then a Characters event is fired for each line.

IgnoreBadAttributePrefixes:   If true, bad (unknown) attribute prefixes are ignored.

Normally a trappable error is generated when an unknown attribute prefix is encountered. This configuration setting suppresses the error. The default value is True.

IgnoreBadElementPrefixes:   If true, bad (unknown) element prefixes are ignored.

Normally a trappable error is generated when an unknown element prefix is encountered. This configuration setting suppresses the error. The default value is True.

IncludeElementPrefix:   Whether to include the prefix in the element name.

This configuration setting specifies whether or not to include the element prefix in the Element parameter of the StartElement and EndElement events.

If False (default) and Validate is set to False, the prefix is included in the Element parameter (e.g., ds:DigestMethod).

If True and Validate is set to False, the prefix is not included in the Element parameter (e.g., DigestMethod).

This setting is applicable only when Validate is False.

IncludeXMLDeclaration:   Whether to include the XML declaration when writing XML.

This configuration setting specifies whether the XML declaration is included in the output XML when writing XML. When set to True (default), the XML declaration will be included above any user-specified XML. For instance:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" ?>
...
Indent:   The characters to use for each indentation level.

If specified, the control will format the output XML, using the specified characters to denote each indentation level for nested XML elements.

This option should be combined with EOL for full effect.

Offset:   Current offset of the document being parsed.

This property is useful for determining the location of possible XML errors in the document.

Offset values start at 1.

PreserveWhitespace:   If true, leading and trailing whitespace in element text is preserved.

Normally, the leading and trailing whitespace from an element's text is trimmed. When this property is set to True, this leading and trailing whitespace is preserved. The default value is False.

QuoteChar:   Quote character to use for attribute values.

By default, the control will use double quotes around attribute values. This property can be used to specify a different character, such as a single quote.

StringProcessingOptions:   Defines options to use when processing string values.

This configuration setting determines what additional processing is performed on string values fired through the Characters event.

Note: This applies only when BuildDOM is False.

By default, no additional processing is performed and the string is returned as is from the document. Strings may also be XML unescaped. Possible values are as follows:

0 (none - default) No additional processing is performed.
1 Strings are XML unescaped.

For instance, when set to 0, the following text may be fired through the Characters event:

&amp;&quot;&lt;&gt;

When set to 1, the following text would be fired through the Characters event:

&"<>

Base Config Settings

CodePage:   The system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations.

The default code page is Unicode UTF-8 (65001).

The following is a list of valid code page identifiers:

IdentifierName
037IBM EBCDIC - U.S./Canada
437OEM - United States
500IBM EBCDIC - International
708Arabic - ASMO 708
709Arabic - ASMO 449+, BCON V4
710Arabic - Transparent Arabic
720Arabic - Transparent ASMO
737OEM - Greek (formerly 437G)
775OEM - Baltic
850OEM - Multilingual Latin I
852OEM - Latin II
855OEM - Cyrillic (primarily Russian)
857OEM - Turkish
858OEM - Multilingual Latin I + Euro symbol
860OEM - Portuguese
861OEM - Icelandic
862OEM - Hebrew
863OEM - Canadian-French
864OEM - Arabic
865OEM - Nordic
866OEM - Russian
869OEM - Modern Greek
870IBM EBCDIC - Multilingual/ROECE (Latin-2)
874ANSI/OEM - Thai (same as 28605, ISO 8859-15)
875IBM EBCDIC - Modern Greek
932ANSI/OEM - Japanese, Shift-JIS
936ANSI/OEM - Simplified Chinese (PRC, Singapore)
949ANSI/OEM - Korean (Unified Hangul Code)
950ANSI/OEM - Traditional Chinese (Taiwan; Hong Kong SAR, PRC)
1026IBM EBCDIC - Turkish (Latin-5)
1047IBM EBCDIC - Latin 1/Open System
1140IBM EBCDIC - U.S./Canada (037 + Euro symbol)
1141IBM EBCDIC - Germany (20273 + Euro symbol)
1142IBM EBCDIC - Denmark/Norway (20277 + Euro symbol)
1143IBM EBCDIC - Finland/Sweden (20278 + Euro symbol)
1144IBM EBCDIC - Italy (20280 + Euro symbol)
1145IBM EBCDIC - Latin America/Spain (20284 + Euro symbol)
1146IBM EBCDIC - United Kingdom (20285 + Euro symbol)
1147IBM EBCDIC - France (20297 + Euro symbol)
1148IBM EBCDIC - International (500 + Euro symbol)
1149IBM EBCDIC - Icelandic (20871 + Euro symbol)
1200Unicode UCS-2 Little-Endian (BMP of ISO 10646)
1201Unicode UCS-2 Big-Endian
1250ANSI - Central European
1251ANSI - Cyrillic
1252ANSI - Latin I
1253ANSI - Greek
1254ANSI - Turkish
1255ANSI - Hebrew
1256ANSI - Arabic
1257ANSI - Baltic
1258ANSI/OEM - Vietnamese
1361Korean (Johab)
10000MAC - Roman
10001MAC - Japanese
10002MAC - Traditional Chinese (Big5)
10003MAC - Korean
10004MAC - Arabic
10005MAC - Hebrew
10006MAC - Greek I
10007MAC - Cyrillic
10008MAC - Simplified Chinese (GB 2312)
10010MAC - Romania
10017MAC - Ukraine
10021MAC - Thai
10029MAC - Latin II
10079MAC - Icelandic
10081MAC - Turkish
10082MAC - Croatia
12000Unicode UCS-4 Little-Endian
12001Unicode UCS-4 Big-Endian
20000CNS - Taiwan
20001TCA - Taiwan
20002Eten - Taiwan
20003IBM5550 - Taiwan
20004TeleText - Taiwan
20005Wang - Taiwan
20105IA5 IRV International Alphabet No. 5 (7-bit)
20106IA5 German (7-bit)
20107IA5 Swedish (7-bit)
20108IA5 Norwegian (7-bit)
20127US-ASCII (7-bit)
20261T.61
20269ISO 6937 Non-Spacing Accent
20273IBM EBCDIC - Germany
20277IBM EBCDIC - Denmark/Norway
20278IBM EBCDIC - Finland/Sweden
20280IBM EBCDIC - Italy
20284IBM EBCDIC - Latin America/Spain
20285IBM EBCDIC - United Kingdom
20290IBM EBCDIC - Japanese Katakana Extended
20297IBM EBCDIC - France
20420IBM EBCDIC - Arabic
20423IBM EBCDIC - Greek
20424IBM EBCDIC - Hebrew
20833IBM EBCDIC - Korean Extended
20838IBM EBCDIC - Thai
20866Russian - KOI8-R
20871IBM EBCDIC - Icelandic
20880IBM EBCDIC - Cyrillic (Russian)
20905IBM EBCDIC - Turkish
20924IBM EBCDIC - Latin-1/Open System (1047 + Euro symbol)
20932JIS X 0208-1990 & 0121-1990
20936Simplified Chinese (GB2312)
21025IBM EBCDIC - Cyrillic (Serbian, Bulgarian)
21027Extended Alpha Lowercase
21866Ukrainian (KOI8-U)
28591ISO 8859-1 Latin I
28592ISO 8859-2 Central Europe
28593ISO 8859-3 Latin 3
28594ISO 8859-4 Baltic
28595ISO 8859-5 Cyrillic
28596ISO 8859-6 Arabic
28597ISO 8859-7 Greek
28598ISO 8859-8 Hebrew
28599ISO 8859-9 Latin 5
28605ISO 8859-15 Latin 9
29001Europa 3
38598ISO 8859-8 Hebrew
50220ISO 2022 Japanese with no halfwidth Katakana
50221ISO 2022 Japanese with halfwidth Katakana
50222ISO 2022 Japanese JIS X 0201-1989
50225ISO 2022 Korean
50227ISO 2022 Simplified Chinese
50229ISO 2022 Traditional Chinese
50930Japanese (Katakana) Extended
50931US/Canada and Japanese
50933Korean Extended and Korean
50935Simplified Chinese Extended and Simplified Chinese
50936Simplified Chinese
50937US/Canada and Traditional Chinese
50939Japanese (Latin) Extended and Japanese
51932EUC - Japanese
51936EUC - Simplified Chinese
51949EUC - Korean
51950EUC - Traditional Chinese
52936HZ-GB2312 Simplified Chinese
54936Windows XP: GB18030 Simplified Chinese (4 Byte)
57002ISCII Devanagari
57003ISCII Bengali
57004ISCII Tamil
57005ISCII Telugu
57006ISCII Assamese
57007ISCII Oriya
57008ISCII Kannada
57009ISCII Malayalam
57010ISCII Gujarati
57011ISCII Punjabi
65000Unicode UTF-7
65001Unicode UTF-8
The following is a list of valid code page identifiers for Mac OS only:
IdentifierName
1ASCII
2NEXTSTEP
3JapaneseEUC
4UTF8
5ISOLatin1
6Symbol
7NonLossyASCII
8ShiftJIS
9ISOLatin2
10Unicode
11WindowsCP1251
12WindowsCP1252
13WindowsCP1253
14WindowsCP1254
15WindowsCP1250
21ISO2022JP
30MacOSRoman
10UTF16String
0x90000100UTF16BigEndian
0x94000100UTF16LittleEndian
0x8c000100UTF32String
0x98000100UTF32BigEndian
0x9c000100UTF32LittleEndian
65536Proprietary

MaskSensitiveData:   Whether sensitive data is masked in log messages.

In certain circumstances it may be beneficial to mask sensitive data, like passwords, in log messages. Set this to to mask sensitive data. The default is .

This setting only works on these controls: AS3Receiver, AS3Sender, Atom, Client(3DS), FTP, FTPServer, IMAP, OFTPClient, SSHClient, SCP, Server(3DS), Sexec, SFTP, SFTPServer, SSHServer, TCPClient, TCPServer.

UseInternalSecurityAPI:   Whether or not to use the system security libraries or an internal implementation.

When set to , the control will use the system security libraries by default to perform cryptographic functions where applicable.

Setting this configuration setting to tells the control to use the internal implementation instead of using the system security libraries.

This setting is set to by default on all platforms.

Trappable Errors (XML Control)

XML Errors

20102    Invalid attribute index.
20103    No attributes available.
20104    Invalid namespace index.
20105    No namespaces available.
20106    Invalid element index.
20107    No elements available.
20108    Attribute does not exist.
20202    Unbalanced element tag.
20203    Unknown element prefix (cannot find namespace).
20204    Unknown attribute prefix (cannot find namespace).
20205    Invalid XML markup.
20206    Invalid end state for parser.
20207    Document contains unbalanced elements.
20208    Invalid XPath.
20209    No such child.
20210    Top element does not match start of path.
20211    DOM tree unavailable (set BuildDOM to True and reparse).
20303    Cannot open file.
20402    Invalid XML would be generated.
20403    An invalid XML name has been specified.