how to escape '&' in maven pom property values [duplicate]

Question

I need to set a URL via a maven property (to be replaced per profile). The problem is that this URL contains some & and maven doesn't like this (if URL contains &_program):

"The reference to entity "_program" must end with the ';' delimiter." error occurs in pom on this line.

So how to escape this character or how to escape a hole line that might contain some "special" characters. (What other characters are forbidden in property-values?)

Answer 1

I've not used maven but from the sounds of it, standard XML escaping would get the job done. In your case you can try using

& instead of &

What characters do I need to escape in XML documents?

Answer 2

You can escape one character or a whole line that might contain some "special" characters by surrounding property value with <![CDATA[ property value ]]>. For example for some URL it would look like:

<properties>
    <some.url><![CDATA[http://stackoverflow.com?param_1=1&param_2=2]]></some.url>
</properties>