url query xml and xpath transform - xslt

Question

Short question: How to deal with a raw ampersand in xml input file.
ADDED: Im not even selecting the field with the ampersand. The parser complains at the presence of the ampersand within the file.
Long explanation:
im dealing with xml that is generated via a url response.
<NOTE>I%20hope%20this%20won%27t%20require%20a%20signature%3f%20%20
There%20should%20be%20painters%20%26%20stone%20guys%20at%20the
%20house%20on%20Wednesday%2c%20but%20depending%20on%20what%20time%20
it%20is%20delivered%2c%20I%20can%27t%20guarantee%21%20%20
Also%2c%20just%20want%20to%20make%20sure%20the%20billing%20address
%20is%20different%20from%20shipping%20address%3f
</NOTE>
which is url decoded into this:
<NOTE>I hope this won't require a signature?
There should be painters & stone guys at the
house on Wednesday, but depending on what time it is delivered, I can't guarantee!
Also, just want to make sure the billing address is different from shipping address?
</NOTE>
The Problem:
xslproc chokes on that last string because of the '&' in "painters & stone guys"
with the following error:
xmlParseEntityRef: no name
<NOTE>I hope this won't require a signature? There should be painters &
It looks like xsltproc expects a closing </NOTE>
Ive tried all manner of disable-output-escaping="yes" in various locations. xsl:output and xsl:value-of
And also tried xsltproc --decode-uri but cant figure out that one out. No documentation.
Note:
I wonder if its worth keeping the input in urlencoded format. And using a DOCTYPE..such as the following (not sure how to do that). The output is eventually a browser.
<!DOCTYPE xsl:stylesheet [
<!ENTITY nbsp " ">
<!ENTITY copy "©">
<!ENTITY reg "®">
]>

Answer 1

The XML is malformed if there's an ampersand that's not escaped. If you put the string inside <![CDATA[]]>, then it should work.
<NOTE><![CDATA[I hope this won't require a signature?
There should be painters & stone guys at the
house on Wednesday, but depending on what time it is delivered, I can't guarantee!
Also, just want to make sure the billing address is different from shipping address?]]>
</NOTE>
Or, of course, use & instead of &.
Edit: You can also translate the URL escapes into numeric character references if the XSLT processor supports disable-output-escaping (and xsltproc does):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
version="1.0">
<xsl:template match="#*|node()">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="#*|node()"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="NOTE">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:call-template name="decodeURL"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template name="decodeURL">
<xsl:param name="URL" select="string()"/>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="contains($URL,'%')">
<xsl:variable name="remainingURL" select="substring-after($URL,'%')"/>
<xsl:value-of disable-output-escaping="yes" select="concat(
substring-before($URL,'%'),
'&#x',
substring($remainingURL,1,2),
';')"/>
<xsl:call-template name="decodeURL">
<xsl:with-param name="URL" select="substring($remainingURL,3)"/>
</xsl:call-template>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:value-of select="$URL"/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Of course you don't have to use this transformation as a preprocessing step, you can re-use decodeURL in a stylesheet that transforms your source XML that includes the URL encoded string to HTML or whatever.