Hey David,
I have created my own XML file for a merchant from Webgains that does not have their own feed.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<products>
<product>
<ProductName>2minutedraw</ProductName>
<ProductDescription>2minutedraw.com is a fun new survey site. Win amazing prizes every month just by filling in the simple 2 minute survey! No hassle, no fuss, just 2 minutes of your time and you could be well on your way to having an extra £2000 in your pocket!</ProductDescription>
<ImageURL>http://www.XXX.com/logos/2minutedraw</ImageURL>
<BuyURL>http://track.webgains.com/click.html?wgcampaignid=XXX&wgprogramid=XXX</BuyURL>
<Price>0</Price>
</product>
</products>When I try and register this feed the sample data does not show so I can't register. With some trial and error I managed to pin point the problem. It is with the "&" symbol in the BuyURL. When I remove this the sample data shows and I can import the feed.
The strange thing is I am using webgains own xml feeds from other merchants. These feeds have the same format url with the "&" symbol. The only thing I can think of is the encoding, which is utf-8 in my feed above, but this is the same encoding as the webgains feeds aswell which work fine. Any idea what the problem is?
Thanks, Steven
Hi Steven,
Because the "&" symbol has a special meaning within XML; it must either be entity encoded itself as "&", or the entire field delimited within CDATA tags, for example:
<BuyURL><![CDATA[http://track.webgains.com/click.html?wgcampaignid=XXX&wgprogramid=XXX]]></BuyURL>That should sort it!
Cheers,
David.