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.

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>
        </eConnectProcessInfo>
        <taUpdateCreateCustomerRcd>
            <CUSTNMBR>AARONFIT0001</CUSTNMBR>
            <SHRTNAME>
                <![CDATA[ ]]>
            </SHRTNAME>
            <UpdateIfExists>1</UpdateIfExists>
        </taUpdateCreateCustomerRcd>
    </RMCustomerMasterType>
</eConnect>