Mink XML handling not as expected, adds backslashes to feed

Question

I am using Mink with the Goutte webdriver trying to replace the contents of a form in a website with an XML feed.

I coded the following method:

public function replaceField($field)
    {
        $baseText = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<RiskAssessmentReply xmlns="http://test.com" >
    <!-- ExternalId of the Order --> 
    <OrderId>TO_REPLACE</OrderId>
    <RiskInfo>
        <Actions>
            <SystemAction>SystemAction</SystemAction>
            <FinalAction>FinalAction</FinalAction>
        </Actions>
        <Score SystemScore="0"/>
    </RiskInfo>
    <!-- One of Accept, Manual_Accept, Reject, Cancel, or Ignore --> 
    <ResponseCode>Accept</ResponseCode>
    <StoreId>TESTSTORE</StoreId>
</RiskAssessmentReply>';

        $textWithOrderId = preg_replace('/TO_REPLACE/', $GLOBALS['ORDER_ID'], $baseText);
        $this->getSession()->getPage()->fillField($field, $textWithOrderId);
    }

Which basically contains the XML feed, then I replace a part of it with an order ID that I have from beforehand and call the function fillField which comes bundled with Mink.

The problem is that it does not just paste the text that I provide, but formats it in a weird manner by setting backslashes before the " symbols, like this:

<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>

Therefore, when I try to submit the XML feed, the website displays the following error:

|  Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'ErrorException' with message 'SimpleXMLElement::__construct(): Entity: line 1: parser error : String not started expecting ' or "'

I've tried using the stripslashes method from PHP, but it doesn't work, as if I try an echo after adding it an Order ID it displays the original XML without slashes, so I'm guessing there is a calling to some other function when using fillField that does indeed add the backslashes to my text, but I haven't been able to find the source for it.

Does anyone know where this conversion from " to \" is made in order to avoid it?

Thanks

Answer 1

Ensure that you are using stripcslashes instead of stripslashes in the page that receives the form.

Answer 2

Make sure the Magic Quotes setting is off in PHP, especially on the server you're submitting to. They are removed as of PHP 5.4.0.

Magic Quotes