Save (export) and Open (import) of Project file as XML is not workingon MS Project 2003 Enterprise E

[kix1956]

Hi I am attempting to perform a SAVE AS XML operation on an Enterprise
Project, hosted on a Project Server 2003 instance. I am attempting to
save the .xml file on my workstation hard drive. The SAVE AS XML
appears to work without a problem, however when I attempt to OPEN
(import) the XML file I recieve a cryptic pop-up indicating that an
error has occurred and the file is possily damaged with a
recommendation of using a back-up of the file. The exact text from
Microsoft Office Project is; An unexpected problem occurred while
opening the file. The file may be damaged. Try using a backup copy. I
have attempted this operation on two Enterprise projects and received
the same result when attempting to open the files. I attempted the
same operation today on a third file and was able to open it. All
three files originate from the same Project Server 2003 instance. Does
anyone know of any problems in this area? Can someone provide guidance
as to how to go about diagnosing the problem? The two projects that I
cannot convert and open as .XML files, I am able to continue to open
as native Enterprise Projects and continue to post task updates to
them, so it isn't like the source data is causing a problem in project.

 

[kix1956]

Hi I am attempting to perform a SAVE AS XML operation on an Enterprise
Project, hosted on a Project Server 2003 instance. I am attempting to
save the .xml file on my workstation hard drive. The SAVE AS XML
appears to work without a problem, however when I attempt to OPEN
(import) the XML file I recieve a cryptic pop-up indicating that an
error has occurred and the file is possily damaged with a
recommendation of using a back-up of the file. The exact text from
Microsoft Office Project is; An unexpected problem occurred while
opening the file. The file may be damaged. Try using a backup copy. I
have attempted this operation on two Enterprise projects and received
the same result when attempting to open the files. I attempted the
same operation today on a third file and was able to open it. All
three files originate from the same Project Server 2003 instance. Does
anyone know of any problems in this area? Can someone provide guidance
as to how to go about diagnosing the problem? The two projects that I
cannot convert and open as .XML files, I am able to continue to open
as native Enterprise Projects and continue to post task updates to
them, so it isn't like the source data is causing a problem in project.

More info. on the XML file. I used file open with and attempted to
open one of the failing files using EXCEL and INFOPATH and obtained
more detailed information on the problem associated with the file.
From infopath I received the following: The form contains XML that
cannot be parsed: An invalid character was found in text content. line
1056 column 4509 file offset 1399685. In EXCEL I received Error Code
0172896760 URL : <url> Reason : An invalid character was found in
text content. (followed by same demographic info)

 

[kix1956]

Hi I am attempting to perform a SAVE AS XML operation on an Enterprise
Project, hosted on a Project Server 2003 instance. I am attempting to
save the .xml file on my workstation hard drive. The SAVE AS XML
appears to work without a problem, however when I attempt to OPEN
(import) the XML file I recieve a cryptic pop-up indicating that an
error has occurred and the file is possily damaged with a
recommendation of using a back-up of the file. The exact text from
Microsoft Office Project is; An unexpected problem occurred while
opening the file. The file may be damaged. Try using a backup copy. I
have attempted this operation on two Enterprise projects and received
the same result when attempting to open the files. I attempted the
same operation today on a third file and was able to open it. All
three files originate from the same Project Server 2003 instance. Does
anyone know of any problems in this area? Can someone provide guidance
as to how to go about diagnosing the problem? The two projects that I
cannot convert and open as .XML files, I am able to continue to open
as native Enterprise Projects and continue to post task updates to
them, so it isn't like the source data is causing a problem in project.

Playing with this a bit more I have found the problem (in the context
of the data in the file) and determined a way in which to repair the
file in the context of an XML file. The message produced by MS Project
is very weak in terms of enabling someone to determine what the source
of the problem is, however other Microsoft office products are
somewhat better. Using MS Infopath to open the file, I still received
a fault, however the error information when clicking the show details
button actually exposed the problem. It turns out that the XML parser
does not like certain characters in a text field. The error details
actually points to the specific text that is failing the parse
operation. The difficulty is in finding the offending text in the
original project file that was used to create the .XML file in the
first place. In both .XML files created from two different projects
the offending data was contained within TASK NOTES. Apparently the
text entered in text notes is not policed to ensure that a project
file can be converted to XML. After removing the offending text in the
task notes, and once again saving the project files as .XML files, I
was able to then open the files using MS Project 2003 Enterprise
Edition. Also you can use MS EXCEL to expose the same problem text.

 

[Roger Meyer]

Hello,
We have had this same issue before and this is the first that someone was
able to help out. I believe that the cause for the problem is as follows.
There are 5 special characters that XML just does not deal well with.

They are the &, <, >, ", '

If an XML browser finds one of these characters and isn't coded correctly
the browser will have issues trying to parse it and it will fail.

The export process probably didn't code for it correctly and therefore we it
tries to read the file it fails.

Fixing the problem within the XML document is one way to do it. I would
gather (since I am unable to see the XML) that you might be able to go
through your project and look for these special characters and remove then
there. This is a little cleaner and prevents you from making a mistake
within the XML document.