Illegal characters in path when parsing xml string

Question

I am having a hard time parsing some simple xml data being sent back by a cc terminal.

Here is the data I'm given back:

"<PLCardPresent>0</PLCardPresent><PLEntryMode>1</PLEntryMode><PLNameOnCard>FRANKINSON/FRANK </PLNameOnCard><AmountDue>0</AmountDue><TipAmount>0</TipAmount><CashBackAmout>0</CashBackAmout><MerchantFee>0</MerchantFee><TaxAmount>0</TaxAmount><ExpDate>1219</ExpDate><ECRRefNum>666</ECRRefNum>"

I am attempting to parse it with this:

Dim myXmlDoc As New XmlDocument
myXmlDoc.Load(r.ExtData)
Dim ExpDate As String = ReturnXmlValue(myXmlDoc, "ExpDate")
Dim NameOnCard As String = ReturnXmlValue(myXmlDoc, "PLNameOnCard")

My method:

  Protected Function ReturnXmlValue(ByVal myXDoc As Xml.XmlDocument, ByVal field As String) As String
    Dim retval As String = String.Empty

    Try

      Dim node As Xml.XmlNodeList = myXDoc.GetElementsByTagName(field)
      If node IsNot Nothing And node.Count > 0 Then
        retval = node.Item(0).InnerText
      End If

    Catch ex As Exception
      WriteException(ex)
      Throw
    End Try

    Return retval
  End Function

The errors is happening at the load of the xml doc.

Am I not parsing this the right way?

ADDITIONAL INFO

Since it was suggested that I check for null terminators, I made the following change, which I hope is what was meant:

   Dim test As String = r.ExtData.Replace(ControlChars.NullChar, String.Empty)
   Dim myXmlDoc As New XmlDocument
   myXmlDoc.Load(test)

I still received the error I mention in the title.

As for what is the r.ExtData, it is the line of data that starts with that I highlighted above.

Dim r As PaymentResponse = posl.PaymentResponse

Which gives me something similiar to this:

enter image description here

You're using the wrong method. Load accepts a filename, not an XML string. — Dai
– Dai, Commented Mar 17, 2015 at 19:32

Thomas Weller · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-17 19:32:44Z

3

Your string is not valid XML.

XML needs to have one single root element. Yours has many XML elements on root level:

<PLCardPresent>0</PLCardPresent>
<PLEntryMode>1</PLEntryMode>
<PLNameOnCard>FRANKINSON/FRANK </PLNameOnCard>
<AmountDue>0</AmountDue>
<TipAmount>0</TipAmount>
<CashBackAmout>0</CashBackAmout>
<MerchantFee>0</MerchantFee>
<TaxAmount>0</TaxAmount>
<ExpDate>1219</ExpDate>
<ECRRefNum>666</ECRRefNum>

You can workaround this by adding a start root element at the beginning and a closing root element at the end so that it looks like

<root>
    <PLCardPresent>0</PLCardPresent>
    <PLEntryMode>1</PLEntryMode>
    <PLNameOnCard>FRANKINSON/FRANK </PLNameOnCard>
    <AmountDue>0</AmountDue>
    <TipAmount>0</TipAmount>
    <CashBackAmout>0</CashBackAmout>
    <MerchantFee>0</MerchantFee>
    <TaxAmount>0</TaxAmount>
    <ExpDate>1219</ExpDate>
    <ECRRefNum>666</ECRRefNum>
</root>

Second, note the major difference between the two methods

xml.Load(filename); // Filename as string
xml.LoadXml(xmlcontent); // XML as string

answered Mar 17, 2015 at 19:32

Thomas Weller

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1 Comment

ErocM Over a year ago

I did both changes you suggested and it worked perfectly. TYVM!

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