[Is Styled text and &]

I found the information in this thread very useful, but I'm still having a slightly different problem with the & character.

I would like to include an HTML link in a text field using an XML file as my data source. The simple case below works and everything renders correctly including the link in my PDF output:

Report Text Field Definition

    <textField isStretchWithOverflow="true">

<reportElement stretchType="RelativeToBandHeight" x="400" y="20" width="155" height="20"/>

<textElement markup="html"/>

<textFieldExpression><![CDATA[$F{HtmlLink}]]></textFieldExpression>

    </textField>

Desired HTML

      For help go to: <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>

XML element

        <HtmlLink>For help go to: <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a></ HtmlLink >

PDF rendering

        For help go to: Google

 

However, when I try and add more than one parameter to my link (? for first param, & for multiple params), the & character completely messes up the style and all the source HTML is clearly displayed. For example:

Desired HTML

      For more help go to: <a href="http://support.google.com/bin/static.py?page=portal_groups.cs&hl=en">Google Help</a>

XML element

         <HtmlLink>For more help go to: <a href="http://support.google.com/bin/static.py?page=portal_groups.cs&hl=en">Google Help</a></ HtmlLink >

PDF rendering

    For more help go to: <a href="http://support.google.com/bin/static.py?page=portal_groups.cs&hl=en" type="Reference">Google Help</a>

 

Obviously, I don't want my users to see the source HTML for the "a href" tag, and I don't want to limit my users data by restricting them to only one parameter max for HTML links.

Also I do not know where the additional text type="Reference" comes from in the displayed link. It must be some type of short circuit with the & character and the HTML markup processor.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

TK

 

 

Post Edited by tkofford at 02/23/2012 15:59

Post Edited by tkofford at 02/23/2012 16:00