asked on

MSXML: preserve whitespace in XML

In short: I would like to preserve the whitespaces in XML. How is that done with MSXML?

The long version:

I am building a CMS where I store data in XML files.

The stylesheets (CSS) are stores in a XML file and called with an ASP-file on the output page. Like this: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css.asp?id=1" />

css.asp:

set xmldoc = Server.CreateObject("Msxml.DOMDocument")
xmldoc.async = false
xmldoc.load(Server.MapPath("stylesheets.xml"))
Set oNode = xmldoc.documentElement.SelectSingleNode("//stylesheet[@id='" & Request("id") & "']")
response.write oNode.SelectSingleNode(".//screen").text

The problem is that the MSXML parser removes all whitespaces and css like this:

body {
background : rgb(255,255,255);
}
p {
font-family: Arial;
}

Becomes:

body { background : rgb(255,255,255);} p { font-family: Arial; }

Which the browser doesn't understand. So I need to preserve the whitespaces. But how?

I have tried to search the internet and found different solutions but can't seem to get it to work. Hope somebody can help me.

Cheers,

Andreas

conorj

change

xmldoc.async = false
xmldoc.load(Server.MapPath("stylesheets.xml"))

to

xmldoc.async = false
xmldoc.preserveWhiteSpace = True
xmldoc.load(Server.MapPath("stylesheets.xml"))

and your whitespace will be preserved.

Hope this helps.

rgds,
Conor.

AndreasA

ASKER

Conor: I have allready tried that. It didn't work :-(

dfiala13

What's your raw XML look like with tags, etc.?

AndreasA

ASKER

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<css count="1" nextid="2" foldercount="1" foldernextid="2">
<folders>
<folder id="1">
<title>My Stylesheet</title>
<folders/>
<stylesheets>
<stylesheet id="1" rights="">
<title>Indfødte folks</title>
<mediatypes>
<screen>
</screen
...
</mediatypes>
</stylesheet>
</folders>
</folder>
</folders>
</css>

dfiala13

So the screen tag looks like this?
<screen>
body {
background : rgb(255,255,255);
}
p {
font-family: Arial;
}
</screen>

AndreasA

ASKER

Yes and no...

When I look at my XML file in IE, the <screen> node looks like this (no whitespace):

body { background : rgb(255,255,255);} p { font-family: Arial; }

When I open the node in a textarea it looks like this (with withspace):

body {
background : rgb(255,255,255);
}
p {
font-family: Arial;
}

dfiala13

>>When I open the node in a textarea it looks like this (with withspace):

body {
background : rgb(255,255,255);
}
p {
font-family: Arial;
}

Which is what you want it to look like in IE, yes?

AndreasA

ASKER

exactlly!

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

dfiala13

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pmsyyz

Have you tried adding:

xml:space="preserve"

to your XML document's root element?

Perhaps the MSXML parser is aware of it and will obey it.

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-white-space

AndreasA

ASKER

dfiala13: Thanks for an excellent answer. You are absolutely correct, its IE that flattens the stylesheet and the whitespace are actually preserved. It works beautifully :-)