Not able to update Rich text field with XML data

Question

I have created a custom field(Rich Text field) with the Case object and am trying to update that fiekd value with XML data while clicking a button.

If I hard code the value like

CurrentCase.XML_Field__c='value has been hard coded for testing purpose';

This hard coded value is getting updated properly. But if I give the xml variable it is not getting updated.

Lets say my xml string value is -

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 ...........
 ...........

and it has 298 characters. If I assign this variable to my RichTextField it is not getting updated and not throwing any error as well.

Any help would be appreciated...

Thanks

Update:- If I remove these <,>,</,<?,?> symbols from the xml string and hard coding the rest of the entire string(whatever may be the length) am able to update my rich text field. Whether these symbols are the reason xml is not getting updated..

Answer 1

RichTextArea strips out certain tags from the markup and so this is why your data isn't stored correctly.

Test__c cr = new Test__c(id='a0H11000008jpJD');
cr.xml__c = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><bob>Hello World</bob>';
update cr;

cr = [select xml__c from Test__c where id='a0H11000008jpJD'];
system.debug(cr.xml__c);

debug = 'Hello World'.

If you change to a TextArea field type then the data is correctly stored. debug now shows

'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><bob>Hello World</bob>'

My suggestion is change the fieldtype to TextArea and this should store the data correctly.

Answer 2

A rich text area only stores "HTML" content, not "XML" content. You cannot freely store any tags you wish, only those that are allowed in HTML that cannot cause potential threats (e.g. you cannot store script tags, because this could be used for XSS attacks) or are not useful in a document context (e.g. the head tag is used for header data).

While I cannot seem to find a list of elements which are allowed, you should assume that the only legal elements are those that appear on the toolbar when you try manually editing a record that has a rich text area. The system automatically handles situations such as elements not closed, or wrapped incorrectly, etc, in a predefined manner that cannot be altered.

If you need to store any arbitrary XML, use either a text area or long text area, depending on the storage requirements. If you wish to present formatted text to a user, use the rich text area, and use only basic HTML.

Answer 3

Changing the field type from Rich Text to Long Text solved my problem.

Thanks to everyone..