Trying to remove CDATA from response not working

[axasmgaxa]

Hi All,

I am hoping someone can help me here! 

I have have a REST request that is returning a response, which seems to be in JSON format. I don't know much about JSON at all.

I can see the XML response also, which contains the "<![CDATA[" tag. 
I want to remove the CDATA tag, so that I can use the "Outline" tab to extract necessary data from the response.

I am using an event handler to replace all; in order to remove the tag but it isn't removing it.

The strange part of this is, when I try and remove any other text, that text is removed, which proves the event handler is working.

It just won't remove the CDATA tag.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I will attach a snip of the XML tab, and also the code I have in the event handler is below.

The event handler is "RequestFilter.afterRequest"

def content = context.httpResponse.responseContent

content = content.replaceAll( "<!\\[CDATA\\[", "" )
content = content.replaceAll( "]]>", "" )

log.info( content )

context.httpResponse.responseContent = content

Thanks in advance.

Steven.

[nmrao]

It is not appropriate to just replace CDATA sting literals always.

You may see how to deal with it in the below example. Please check if that helps!
https://github.com/nmrao/soapUIGroovyScripts/blob/804652073a8e7c1259bc567c7bf3d2a71e2f4254/groovy/xm...

[nmrao]

You may also see other examples dealing with cdata
https://github.com/nmrao/soapUIGroovyScripts/search?q=cdata

[axasmgaxa]

Thanks for the reply @nmrao , when you say it is not appropriate; is that because it won't work?

I hope to remove the CDATA tags so that the XML will format properly; can be viewed in the "Outline" tab, and I can manipulate the formatted XML to extract data as needed, as the software was designed to do.

If that is not possible I can look at other solutions, but for now, that's what I am aiming to do.

[nmrao]

As stated earlier, it may not always work.
Inside CDATA
JSON can include xml
XML can include Json / xml

In order to be able to parse and read data, you can use the link given in the previous replies.

You can find more information on CDATA
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2784183/what-does-cdata-in-xml-mean

[axasmgaxa]

Hi @nmrao 

thanks again for taking the time to respond.

I moved to another solution for my problem using the property transfer steps to extract the data I need from the response XML. 

Seems to work just fine!

Kind Regards,

Steven.

[nmrao]

Good to hear.

[nmrao]

It would be great to share the approach or solution.

[axasmgaxa · Accepted solution]

Oh yes sure!

So the response was returned in JSON; which contained 3 nodes.

The 2nd node contained the XML I needed to extract my necessary data; called "suite_id"

I set up a property called "XMLData"; and a property transfer. 

I used the Property Transfer "wizard" to select the 2nd JSON node, via the XPATH path language.

I transferred this to the XMLData Property; so this now contains the XML response.

From here I set up a new property, "SuiteID", and another property transfer.

Using the new property transfer, I was able to extract the SuiteID data from the XMLData property. Again using the XPath language in the property transfer wizard.

I transferred the data to my "SuiteID" property. 

[nmrao]

Thanks for sharing the solution.
But one thing is not clear that how the data inside CDATA is extracted which was original issue.

Anyway, I marked your post as solution as per your replies.