code: @Override
      public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length) {
          if (m_inXMLMetadata) {
              if (m_auditBuffer != null) {
                  m_auditBuffer.append(ch, start, length);
              } else {
                  // since this data is encoded straight back to xml,
                  // we need to make sure special characters &, <, >, ", and '
                  // are re-converted to the xml-acceptable equivalents.
                  StreamUtility.enc(ch, start, length, m_dsXMLBuffer);
              }
          } else if (m_readingContent) {
              // read normal element content into a string buffer
              if (m_elementContent != null) {
                  m_elementContent.append(ch, start, length);
              }
          }
      }
docs: {@inheritDoc}