XML syntax: Using Ampersands in "arg"

[randomnumbergenerator]

I'm trying to generate a URL based on a query that I give to Alfred. I set up the XML the following way. It looks like the "arg" attribute doesn't like the ampersands in the URL. If I remove the ampersands it seems to work correctly and passes it to the next step in the workflow.

 

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<items>

  <item uid="sview" arg="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=&layer=c&cbll=37.33741330000001,-122.04509040&cbp=12,0,0,0,0">

    <title>http://maps.google.com/maps?q=&layer=c&cbll=37.33741330000001,-122.04509040&cbp=12,0,0,0,0</title>

  </item>

</items>

 

Is there a way I can work around this?

 

I'm trying to generate a Google street view URL based on a street address that I enter. I have a perl script that queries the Google Maps server to get the latitude and longitude for and address and generate the URL. I want to pass this URL to Google Chrome.

[randomnumbergenerator]

OK. I figured this out. I wasn't familiar with XML. Ampersands need to be escaped in XML:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1328538/how-do-i-escape-ampersands-in-xml

[Andrew]

This might be better achieved if you just use a Keyword Input to get the address, then pass into a static Run Script action to process the query, rather than dynamically creating the XML for the results.

[randomnumbergenerator]

Yes this would be better. Can I get the workflow to send the output from "Run script" to "Open URL". When I add "Run script", it's in the same "column" as "Open URL" so I can't connect the two.

Edited March 30, 2013 by randomnumbergenerator

[Andrew]

Yes this would be better. Can I get the workflow to send the output from "Run script" to "Open URL". When I add "Run script", it's in the same "column" as "Open URL" so I can't connect the two.

 

At the end of your Run Script, just use the open command (or similar) to open the URL instead of passing it into a separate Open URL action.

[randomnumbergenerator]

Thanks. Just use "open {query}".

Edited April 10, 2013 by randomnumbergenerator