xml-dev - Re: Streaming XML back to IE browser problem

[Rick JELLIFFE <ricko@geotempo.com>]

"Hanson, Jon" wrote:
> 
> I'm working on a servlet which when sent the url of a data file (as a GET
> request) will read that file, convert it into our XML equivalent and stream
> the XML back to the request originator. The servlet works fine but to test
> it i'm using Internet Explorer (5.002314.1003) - the servlet gets the
> request, reads the file and sends back the xml ok but the browser strips out
> all the tags and just displays the data (if I do view source I see the
> well-formed XML as expected). In fact I get exactly the same result if i
> rename an zzz.xml file to zzz.html and load it into the browser. This leads
> me to think that IE thinks my data is not XML. But in the servlet I am
> setting the content type to text/xml and if when the data is incorrectly
> displayed in IE I right-click on the background and get the Document
> Properties up, it says XML Document.

Do you have a stylesheet PI in your XML document? That can cause the
behaviour you specify: if the stylesheet is not retrievable or doesn't
have the correct definitions, then the default stylesheet for IE5 is not
selected (if my memory serves me well) and the default CSS or XSL rules
will apply.  This can cause only the data content of your document to be
shown.

(Also, make sure there is no whitespace before your XML declaration, if
you have one (i.e. <?xml .... ?>   ).  This is undoubtedly not your
problem with IE5, but it is a common error in general.)

Cheers
Rick Jelliffe