Data handling in docx from dynamic template

Question

Hi All, 
 How to handle the '&' in data, while using the docx from dynamic template. 
 I am already using the toHtml() and expression rule for escaping xml characters but after that also '&' is converting into '&amp;' 
 and 
 if I don't use toHtml() and expression rule for escaping xml characters, then i got the error in dynamic template as"The entity name must immediately follow the '&' in the entity reference.". 
 Please suggest.

Parth Gupta · Answer

anupriyak0002 - You can try to replace "&" to " &amp;" in the XML.

Mike Schmitt · Answer

What is the code for your "expression rule for escaping xml characters"? toHtml() already converts "&" to "&amp;", and if your expression rule does the same thing (which is my guess), you're probably ending up with " &amp;amp; " which would render in your resulting Word file as literally "&amp;" when you don't intend it to. 
 My overall recommendation would be to make sure the expression rule handles all text correctly, and get rid of toHtml() -- however one way or the other, you might need to make sure you're not doing things twice.

Harsh Kumar Agarwal · Answer

Try creating an expression rule with following definition keeping "ri!value" as text input and pass your XML in this rule before calling the smart service: 
 
 trim( reduce( fn!substitute, ri!value, merge( { "&", "<", ">", char( 34 ), char( 39 ) }, { "&amp;", "&lt;", "&gt;", "&quot;", "&apos;" } ) ) )