String features in out-of-typesystem data not normalized on service replies

Christoph Büscher to uima-user

I currently encountered a problem with the XMI deserialization of a feature structure after calling a remote C++ AS annotator from a CPE. The szenario is the following:

1. I add a custom feature structure "DocumentData" containing an String Feature (the document URL) to the CAS in my CPE. The exact URL causing the problem is:

documentURL="http://www.gesundheitsnachrichten.net/live/navigation/live.php?navigation_id=11&_psmand=1"

2. The CAS get's serialized to XMI before sending it to a remote C++ TAE. I added a breakpoint to UimaSerializer.serializeCasToXmi() and get the following part in the XMI string:

documentURL="http://www.gesundheitsnachrichten.net/live/navigation/live.php?navigation_id=11&_psmand=1"

So here the "&" character seems to be excaped correctly.

3. When the document comes back, the same feature in the XMI string received in UimaSerializer.deserializeCasFromXmi() reads:

documentURL="http://www.gesundheitsnachrichten.net/live/navigation/live.php?navigation_id=11&_psmand=1"

an now the SAXParser throws the following exception:

org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: The reference to entity "_psmand" must end with the ';' delimiter.
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.uima.aae.UimaSerializer.deserializeCasFromXmi(UimaSerializer.java:170)
at ...

because the "&" comes back unescaped.
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Christoph Büscher to uima-user

I did some further testing and the problem seems to happen when the FS is not
declared in the remote C++ TAE but declared and set in an AE in the (lokal) main
application (in out case a CPE running various Java AEs).
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Nice work Christoph!