NSXMLParser can't parse special characters (accents)

Question

I'm using NSXMLParser to parse an xml from a url (my code is almost exactly the same as here)

Some of the elements contain special characters like "á" which causes a word lik ándre to split into two (á and ndre).

Here is my loadXMLByURL

-(id) loadXMLByURL:(NSString *)urlString{
tickets     = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSURL *url      = [NSURL URLWithString:urlString];
NSData  *data   = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:url];
parser          = [[NSXMLParser alloc] initWithData:data];
parser.delegate = self;
[parser parse];
return self;}

I'm pretty sure it's because the encoding is not set (I think it needs to be NSUTF8StringEncoding) but I'm not sure where/how to apply it.

[UPDATE] Rest of my code...

- (void) parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didStartElement:(NSString *)elementname namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName attributes:(NSDictionary *)attributeDict
{    
    if ([elementname isEqualToString:@"ticket"]) 
    {
        currentTicket = [Ticket alloc];
    }

}

- (void) parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser didEndElement:(NSString *)elementname namespaceURI:(NSString *)namespaceURI qualifiedName:(NSString *)qName
{
    if ([elementname isEqualToString:@"name"]) 
    {
        currentTicket.name = currentNodeContent;
    }
    else if ([elementname isEqualToString:@"title"]) 
    {
        currentTicket.title = currentNodeContent;
    }
    else if ([elementname isEqualToString:@"status"]) 
    {
        currentTicket.status = currentNodeContent;
    }
    else if ([elementname isEqualToString:@"ticket"])
    {
        [tickets addObject:currentTicket];
        [currentTicket release];
        currentTicket = nil;
        [currentNodeContent release];
        currentNodeContent = nil;
    }

}

- (void) parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser foundCharacters:(NSString *)string
{
    currentNodeContent = (NSMutableString *) [string stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];
}

[UPDATE 2] Sample xml...

<RB>
    <list>
        <ticket>
            <name>Andrew Ford</name>
            <title>3rd release</title>
            <status>1</status>
        </ticket>

        <ticket>
            <name>David Jenkins</name>
            <title>3rd release</title>
            <status>0</status>
        </ticket>

        <ticket>
            <name>Luis gomez ándre</name>
            <title>3rd release</title>
            <status>1</status>
        </ticket>
    </list>
</RB>

Answer 1

I would load the url to an NSString and then convert like this.

-(id) loadXMLByURL:(NSString *)urlString{

    tickets     = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
    NSURL *url      = [NSURL URLWithString:urlString];
    NSError *error;
    NSString * dataString = [[NSString alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:url encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:&error];
    NSData *data = [dataString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
    parser          = [[NSXMLParser alloc] initWithData:data];
    parser.delegate = self;
    [parser parse];
    return self;

}

EDIT: Part of the problem may be that your parser:foundCharacters: method is assigning to your currentNodeContent instead of appending. See the Apple Doc at the following link.

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/cocoa/reference/NSXMLParserDelegate_Protocol/Reference/Reference.html

From the doc:

Because string may be only part of the total character content for the current element, you should append it to the current accumulation of characters until the element changes.

Answer 2

Found the problem! It is indeed in found characters. You should change your code to this:

- (void) parser:(NSXMLParser *)parser foundCharacters:(NSString *)string
{
    NSLog(@"found characters: %@", string);
    if (!currentNodeContent) {
        currentNodeContent = [[NSMutableString alloc] init];
    }
    [currentNodeContent appendString:string];
}

I was having the same problem before, and the above code has fixed it.

Answer 3

Use

NSData *data = [dataString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

and to get the string from it, do this:

NSString *theXML = [[NSString alloc] initWithBytes:[data mutableBytes]
                                                    length:[data length]
                                                 encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

Then you can parse the xml in your NSXMLParserDelegate methods.

Hope this helps.