#207 GExperts Macro Template Problem with "]" Character in Delphi 10.4

[Bruce]

Using Delphi 10.4, if I create a template that ends with a closing square bracket, GExperts blanks out the template every time and won't accept the information. Adding a space after the ] will work though.

e.g. Cell[|] will be blanked.

[Thomas Mueller]

The problem seems to be that the text is stored as CDATA in the XML file:

which in itself already contains lots of square brackets, so at the end there is a triple bracket in this case which seems to break the parser.

[Thomas Mueller]

It does indeed break the parser:

procedure TXMLCDATASection.ReadFromStream(const Parent: TXMLNode; const InputStream: IUnicodeStream);
type
  TParserState = (psData, psInEnd, psEnd);
var
  ReadChar: WideChar;
  PState: TParserState;
begin
  PState := psData;
  // read next available character
  while InputStream.ProcessChar(ReadChar) do begin
    case PState of
      psData:
        if ReadChar = ']' then
          PState := psInEnd
        else
          InputStream.WriteOutputChar(ReadChar);
      psInEnd:
        if ReadChar = ']' then
          PState := psEnd
        else begin
          InputStream.WriteOutputChar(']');  // 2004-04-07 (mr): fixed bug
          InputStream.WriteOutputChar(ReadChar);
          PState := psData;
        end;
      psEnd:
        if ReadChar = '>' then begin
          NodeValue := InputStream.GetOutputBuffer;
          Exit;
        end
        else begin
          InputStream.WriteOutputChar(ReadChar);
          PState := psData;
        end;
    end;
  end;
end;

The triple ] will change the internal state from psEnd back to psData which is wrong because then it will not find the end of the CDATA entry until it hits the end of the file or the next CDATA entry.

[Thomas Mueller]

Oh great, the bug is fixed in the official repository, but not correctly. It works for 'Cell[|]' but not for other combinations, e.g.
'Cell[|]]a'
encoded as
'<![CDATA[Cell[|]]a]]>'
is read back as
'Cell[|a'

[Thomas Mueller]

fixed in revision #3327

[Bruce]

Thanks. Just noticed today that "%s" may be an issue too...

[Thomas Mueller]

Could you please be more specific? %s should not be a problem at all (at least not with XML parsing).

[Bruce]

Just installed the newest version from SourceForge, and this template:

Format('',[%s]);

expands to:

Format('',[Error!

[Thomas Mueller]

This is not a bug but an invalid template: % is the character to enclose parameter strings like %BEGINPARAMLIST%, %PARAMNAME% etc. To add a literal % you need to duplicate it:

Format('',[%%s]);

I'll open a new bug report that there should be some kind of warning when defining such a template.

[Bruce]

Thanks for fixing this!