How to escape ampersand (&) in soap UI

Question

I am using soap UI (from smartbear) to send soap requests in xml format as :

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:wsg="http://wsg.hpos.om.hp.com/">
   <soapenv:Header/>
   <soapenv:Body>
      <wsg:abc>
      <wsg:contract>
         &lt;request&gt;

         &lt;request-attributes&gt;
            &lt;message&gt;"this &amp; and that"&lt;/message&gt;                
         &lt;/request-attributes&gt;             
         &lt;/request&gt;             
         </wsg:contract>
      </wsg:abc>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

and the response is : Invalid request. Could you please throw light on how to escape &? Thanks

Answer 1

You could wrap the payload inside <![CDATA[]]> and not worry about escaping:

<![CDATA[<request>
    <request-attributes>
        <message>"this & and that"</message>
    </request-attributes> 
</request>]]>