XML Composer step using "pass as string" in XML St

[cdp]

Hi,

Can any one help me in sorting out the below issues?

a) how to remove space inbetween the characters that comes from XML stage?
b) how to send the XML records to the webservice stage?

Process:
1) Reading two tables and joining using the join stage based on key column and it is a left outerjoin.
2) The output of the join is send to the new XML stage, where i am regrouping the records for eg. table1 is the parent and table2 is the child and also mentioned the join key for those two tables.
3) by using XML composer step, sending the records "pass as a string" to the output stage.
4) when sending as a string the records are coming as shown below:

for eg:

< c u s t o m e r s >
< c u s t o m e r n a m e >
s m i t h
< / c u s t o m e r n a m e >
< / c u s t o m e r s >

5) each word has space inbetween the characters. Can any one tell me how to remove the space between the characters?
6) basically i am trying to send the string to the webservice. When sending to the webservice i am facing this error.
"Parallel job reports failure (code 256)"

Thanks,
Shajitha