SimpleXMLElement::addChild doesn't seem to work with certain strings

In the effiliation pluggin for prestashop, i've found this code:

$values->addChild('marque', '<![CDATA['.$product['manufacturer_name'].']]>');

when in $product['manufacturer_name'], i have Cyril & Nathalie Daniel, the output is <![CDATA[Cyril, as opposed to the normal case: <![CDATA[Foo Bar]]>

Can the 2nd argum开发者_高级运维ent of SimpleXMLElement::addChild can contain & ? Do i have to use some htmlentities on the manufacturer name ?

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My problem is described here:

Note that although addChild() escapes "<" and ">", it does not escape the ampersand "&".

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The solution proposed php.net (htmlentities or htmlcspecialchars) is not a good one, so i came up with what salathe suggested:

<?php
class SimpleXMLExtended extends SimpleXMLElement // http://coffeerings.posterous.com/php-simplexml-and-cdata
{
  public function addCData($cdata_text)
  {
    $node= dom_import_simplexml($this); 
    $no = $node->ownerDocument; 
    $node->appendChild($no->createCDATASection($cdata_text)); 
  } 
}

and instead of

$values->addChild('marque', '<![CDATA['.$product['manufacturer_name'].']]>');

use :

$values->addChild('marque')->addCData($product['manufacturer_name']);

Output is now <![CDATA[Cyril & Nathalie Daniel]]>

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Another possibility is to remember that SimpleXMLElement is doing a double-decode -- instead of mapping & to & (single-decode), it seems to work to just map & to & to start with. Your child ends up with & in the XML like it should.

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You may need to encode your manufacturer name with htmlentities by the looks of it. This should be ok within the CDATA tags I'd have thought though.

Try this:

$values->addChild('marque', '<![CDATA['.htmlentities($product['manufacturer_name']).']]>');