BUG - Annotation Modeler: formatting corrupts an edm:String containing an entity, and xml:space is rejected

[xpr0gamers]

Related Feature

Feature request: n/a

Description

The Annotation Modeler registers the DocumentFormattingEditProvider for annotation.xml.
When the document is formatted, it rewrites the text content of an edm:String that contains
an & entity: the text is split at the entity and padded with spaces.

For a literal that carries a URL this silently corrupts the annotation — the link generated at
runtime is broken, and nothing reports a problem at any point.

The standard XML mechanism to prevent this, xml:space="preserve", does work. However the same
extension then reports attribute-not-allowed-here on that attribute. xml: is reserved by the
XML specification and is permitted on any element, so this looks like a false positive: the
attribute validation appears to consider the EDMX schema only, with no notion of the reserved
namespace.

The two behaviours combine badly — the formatter corrupts the annotation, and the only
mechanism that stops it is flagged as an error.

Steps to Reproduce

1. In a Fiori Elements app (OData V4), add a UI.DataFieldWithUrl whose Url is an
   odata.concat containing a literal with an entity reference:

   <Record Type="UI.DataFieldWithUrl">
       <PropertyValue Property="Value" Path="name" />
       <PropertyValue Property="Url">
           <Apply Function="odata.concat">
               <String>https://www.example.com/search/?api=1&amp;query=</String>
               <Path>name</Path>
           </Apply>
       </PropertyValue>
   </Record>

2. Format the document — e.g. save it with editor.formatOnSave enabled.

3. Look at the literal.

Expected results

The text content of an edm:String is preserved verbatim. It is data, not prose: any inserted
whitespace changes the value the annotation evaluates to.

xml:space="preserve" on an edm:String is accepted without a diagnostic.

Actual results

The literal is rewritten to:

<String>
    https://www.example.com/search/?api=1 &amp; query=
</String>

At runtime the URL becomes https://www.example.com/search/?api=1 & query=<value>. The query
parameter is therefore named query (with a leading space) and api has the value 1 , so
the target application receives neither parameter as intended. There is no warning anywhere —
the corruption is silent and only surfaces when a user clicks the link.

This is not driven by line length. It was first observed on a 104-character line; after
splitting the URL into two shorter literals to stay below the usual 100-character threshold, it
happened again on a 64-character line.

Adding xml:space="preserve" to the edm:String does stop the rewrite — verified over
repeated saves and a ui5 build, with UI5 parsing the annotation normally and the generated
URL correct. But the extension then reports:

'xml:space' attribute is not allowed here.   [attribute-not-allowed-here]

There appears to be no way to suppress this: the extension contributes only
sap.ux.annotationModeler.enableTelemetry (deprecated) and
sap.ux.annotationModeler.semanticHighlighting.enabled.

Suggested fix

• Treat the content of edm:String as opaque when formatting — at minimum, never insert
  whitespace around an entity reference.
• Accept attributes in the reserved xml: namespace (xml:space, xml:lang, xml:base)
  on any element, as the XML specification allows.

Screenshots

n/a

Version/Components/Environment

• sapse.sap-ux-annotation-modeler-extension 1.30.0 (SAP Fiori tools extension pack 1.30.0)
• VS Code on macOS 15
• UI5 1.150.0, OData V4, Fiori Elements List Report / Object Page
• redhat.vscode-xml is not installed, so formatting is performed by the Annotation Modeler
  itself and xml.format.* settings have no effect (VS Code reports those keys as unknown).