InfoPath Dev

I saw a few discussions on this subject, but no real solutions. Has anyone seen the following error before after submitting a form? My form is connected to an SQL Database. The database was working fine for a couple week and the following error now appears....

The query cannot be run for the following DataObject: Failure Codes
InfoPath cannot run the specified query.
The file is not a valid XML document.

A name was started with an invalid character.

Line 2669, Position 3
</>
--^

Any help would be greatly appreciated

From the error message, it looks like there's a nameless tag in your XML, identified by "</>". This is, of course, invalid.

Remove this nameless tag from your XML and you should be good to go. Then discover what caused this in the first place, and fix it!

Thanks Greg for your response,

How do I view the code to be able to remove the tag? I've opened up in NotePad, but it is pretty much one long string of code and I could not find the characters in the sequence --^ by using the find command.

Regards,
Dustin

I have this same issue on a few reports that have been submitted by infopath over the past year and a half. I havn't found a ryme or reason for it. But usally they have to retype the report for them to be able to submit it.

You could open it up in an XML editor, like XML Spy or Visual Studio. Then, you can try to search for the line number using ctrl-g option and look at code around it. Good luck.

I downloaded XML Spy. The current Infopath form is a .xsn. XML spy only shows MSCF when I open up the .xsn. How can I save the document as an .xml? Changing the extension does not work.

Dustin

Hi Dustin,
Wait a sec. The original error message suggests a problem with the data connection, not with the XSN. Please right click the XSN. Choose design. Go to Tool->Data Connection and try adding the connection again. If you can't (because it's a submit/receive associated with your main data source), then you will have to crack the XSN. Rename it to .CAB and copy the files out of it. You'll want to look at the manifest.xsf. It's going to require a lot of time if you haven't done this before. You could easily purchase a block of consulting time from us, send us the XSN and some info on your DB and have an answer in short order. One other thing to consider is whether or not the DB changed. If you changed a datatype in the DB and you remember which one you changed. Then, try changing that back. Also, if you added a column to yoru table, that would probably cause a problem. These problems are common issues with the direct connection from InfoPath to SQL. To help people out, we have developed the Qdabra Database Suite which removes the need to create a direct connection. These kinds of changes won't make your form stop working. Anyway, let us know id we can help!

Thanks Patrick,

I made the data connections again, and the error went away. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it. At one time in the future I'm sure I'll need the expertise of you and the consultants.

Thanks again,
Dustin