Thread: Name cannot begin with the '%' character, hexadecimal value 0x25. Line 1, position 2

I have a .aspx page that I want to return a dynamic XML formatted document ie built from database records.

If I view the page direct, the XML appears fine in the browser.

However, if I try and use it as the datasource for an xml control, I get the error "Name cannot begin with the '%' character, hexadecimal value 0x25. Line 1, position 2" which I presume relates to the .aspx page declaration

Code:

<%@ Page Language="VB" CodeFile="customerListXML.aspx.vb" Inherits="feeds_customerListXML" ContentType="text/xml" %> 

The code for generating the XML is:-

Code:

   Sub Page_Load()
       Dim objWriter As XmlTextWriter = New XmlTextWriter(Response.OutputStream, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8)
       objWriter.Indentation = True
 
       objWriter.WriteStartDocument()
       objWriter.WriteStartElement("customers")
       Dim customerList As List(Of Customer) = Customer.GetCustomerList(newUser, newCompany)
       For Each item As Customer In customerList
           objWriter.WriteStartElement("customer")
           objWriter.WriteElementString("ref", item.ref)
           objWriter.WriteElementString("surname", item.lastname)
           objWriter.WriteElementString("forename", item.firstname)
           If item.addList.Count = 0 Then
               objWriter.WriteElementString("postcode", String.Empty)
           Else
               objWriter.WriteElementString("postcode", item.addList(0).postcode)
           End If
           objWriter.WriteElementString("link", "/customers/view/" & item.ref & "/")
           objWriter.WriteEndElement()
       Next
       objWriter.WriteEndElement()
       objWriter.WriteEndDocument()
       objWriter.Flush()
 
   End Sub 

I've tried googling and come up with a couple of sites that suggest unregistering and the re-registering .NET which I've tried but with no luck.

I used this article ASP.NET.4GuysFromRolla.com: Creating XML Documents with the XmlTextWriter Class to create the XML file.

Any ideas how I can fix this?

Originally Posted by Shadow Wizard

change the page Content Type to be XML type (I think "text/XML" but not sure)
by setting the Response.ContentType property.
hopefully this will tell the control it's indeed getting XML..

I have set the ContentType to text/xml in the page control directive.

Is there something else I should add?

In my content page I have:

Code:

<asp:Xml ID="xmlClientList" runat="server"/> 

And in code behind I was using

Code:

xmlClientList.DocumentSource = "/feeds/CustomerListXML.aspx"
xmlClientList.TransformSource = "/xslt/customers_full_list.xslt"
 

Is that what you were after?

<edit>If I change then DocumentSource to "~/App_Data/client_test.xml" which is just a static XML file, it works fine.</edit>

Get the same error...

"Name cannot begin with the '%' character, hexadecimal value 0x25. Line 1, position 2."

Should I be changing the name / extension of the code behind file as well?

If I try and browse to the xml file with the new extension I get an error

Code:

 
The XML page cannot be displayed Cannot view XML input using XSL style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later. A name was started with an invalid character. Error processing resource 'http://www.*********.com/feeds/customerListXM...
<%@ Page Language="VB" CodeFile="clientListXML.aspx.vb" Inherits="feeds_clientListXML" %>
-^ 

Originally Posted by Shadow Wizard

sorry, out of ideas.... I would try to explore alternative to the XML control.

Yeah, I would normally just bind it to a list(of ) object, but I thought I would try and generate XML instead to include some web standard practices...

I would have thought something like this would be fairly common practice, to generate an XML file on the fly and use it in a normal page...Am I doing something out of the ordinary here?

I'm wondering if this is something that the VirtualPathProvider would be useful for...